Prophecy - Book 5 of Twilight Saga (Fan Fiction)
by twilight-saga-prophecy
Summary: Refusing to follow the path laid out for her, Nessie unearths a plot that threatens her very existence. Once again the Olympic Coven must take a stand... but who can they trust? Gripping spin-off in the Twilight Saga Series as Bella and Edward struggle to keep their family together in a desperate bid to survive.
1. Prologue & Chapter 1 - Benjamin

prophecy

Book 5, The Twilight Saga

FAN FICTION by LC © 2012

_Based upon the characters and world of Stephenie Meyer_

Prologue

He paced down the long corridor passing between marble columns on every second stride. There were alcoves along both sides, evenly spaced, with lamps throwing dull orange pools of color around them. Hardly enough to illuminate the place, but there was a homely glow nonetheless.

When he was half way, he glanced to the conference phone on his right; a mine of modern day technology sitting on a three hundred year old stone pillar. How odd he was instructed to take the call in the ballroom when there was an extension right here. He glowered and quickly pressed on. It had already been a minute, and it took another thirty seconds to make it through the grand foyer.

Greta, the receptionist, was not at her desk. She had been the one to inform Felix of the call but since then she'd not returned. In fact he hadn't passed a single person on his way, not that he seemed to care. It was always this way in the daytime, as the colored streams of sunshine shone through great windows and onto the mosaic floor. Better to stay underground through the daylight hours. In Volterra, the Italian sun gave little protection for vampires.

Felix sparkled as he passed under the atrium where the sun lit up tiny diamonds across his face and neck, but the flare of his skin had calmed by the time he mounted the great sweeping staircase that chimed with each step his boots took on the cold stone tiles. He took a left at the top and made his way into the great ballroom. It hadn't been used as a ballroom for a hundred years, well, not in the way humans might consider a ball to be. Certainly there was plenty of feasting, but not of the 'vegetarian' kind.

The phone was mounted on the far wall sandwiched between two tall polished mahogany Italian dressers.

"This is Felix," he said into the receiver in a tone that lacked enthusiasm. Perhaps it was the request to make him walk over to the other side of the palace that had shortened his fuse. "To whom am I speaking?"

There was a silence.

"Hello," he repeated, this time aggressively. He glanced around the room. Recently everything seemed to be irritating him about this place, and a prank phone call less than a week ago had really gotten on his nerves.

"Hello." A male voice replied; higher pitched than Felix's with a thick American accent.

"Who is this, and why do you want to speak to me?" Felix said, coldly.

Again there was silence, then the American spoke. "I'm calling to negotiate my life."

Felix sobered slightly, a smile creasing the corner of his lips. "Well that's an interesting proposition," he said with a smoother tone. "And your name is?"

"It doesn't matter what my name is… well not yet anyway. I need to know, before we talk any further that you will spare me after what I have to say."

"Well well, that's certainly not something I hear every day," Felix said. "And why on earth would you need to negotiate your life with me?"

There was a pause, long enough for Felix to catch his reflection in the huge gilt edged mirror that hung above him.

"Because in two months time you will kill me," the American said.

Felix laughed. "That's preposterous. Is this some kind of joke? Tell me something boy, why would I kill you? Last time I checked I wasn't threatening anyone's life…" _'Well not today anyway',_ Felix thought. "Who are you?"

Another pause between the two of them and Felix thought he heard a gulp.

"You don't know me, at least not yet."

"And if I don't know you, what makes you so certain that I'm going to cross your path. What makes you so certain that I'll…" Felix paused and smiled. "That I'll kill you."

"Because you're a vampire."

Felix laughed down the phone. "Interesting," he said. "Might I ask how you came by my number? It's not often people call this residence, ask for me and then accuse me of being a… vampire. Whatever next – are you going to tell me that you're a werewolf and we're to meet for tea at the next full moon?"

Felix listened to the sound of the American's quick breathing down the line. It had been a while since Felix had bothered to breathe; why pretend when it's really not that necessary anyway.

"The girl yesterday," the American said. "She was a teacher you know, taught five year olds, only been in the job a year, but had finally found something she enjoyed. She had been on a couple of dates with a guy, was thinking it might go somewhere—."

"And you're telling me about some girl, why?"

"After dusk last night you followed her home," the American said. Felix's eyes widened. "She wasn't going to go to the store for milk," he continued, "especially since she'd already put on her pajamas, but she thought her flat mate might notice the smell of the old milk in the refrigerator and blame her for not replacing it already, so she got dressed, and made it there before closing time. But unlucky for her, you followed her home. You pulled her off the road by the Bellamossa Citadel and drained her blood. Ring any bells?"

"Who is this?" Felix yelled into the phone. And then he growled. His scarlet-red eyes flashed as he recalled the girl whose life he had taken.

"First I need your word."

"My word?" Felix said.

"That you shall spare my life."

"And what shall you be giving me in return?"

The American paused, again. "In return, I'll save yours."

This time there was a cold silence between the two of them. Felix glanced around the room again. If he could sweat he would have seen the beads running down his neck in the mirror's reflection, but instead the fear welled up within him. Now he was listening. "Tell me stranger, what do you see?"

"Not now," said the American. "I will call back in exactly three hours."

"I won't—."

"You're not going to the opera," he said flatly. "You'll draw the short straw and be forced to stay and keep watch on the palace while the... others go. They will have left by ten past seven. I will call you at seven thirty."

Felix didn't speak, but already the anxiety was starting to swell within.

"Take the call in the ballroom only, you understand?"

"I understand," Felix said.

Then the American hung up.

Instead of returning to his private quarters, Felix spent most of the time procrastinating in the ballroom; pacing the long lengths of Italian stone in heavy, obdurate steps. Perhaps hunting would settle him, although he had no way of contacting the American and there was hardly enough time to make it out of the walls of Volterra and back before seven thirty. No, hunting was out of the question, and so Felix stayed and contemplated his own death.

The life of a vampire was hard to take; it was not something that happened by accident. It had to be calculated and executed correctly. First the head must be ripped off. Then the body set alight and reduced to cinders. Felix could hardly bear to imagine it.

Instead he started to work through all the vampires that he had irritated over the years. There were certainly many, but he doubted anyone would dare assault him when he was a part of the most formidable coven in the world. The Volturi.

And then a dark thought sprung to mind; the Volturi. Would they be the ones to bring his life to an end? Was it possible that he had become dispensable to them?

Sure he didn't have a gift as so many of the others did, but he was strong and fiercely loyal and that should count for something. Felix recalled the time when he would have been drawn upon to pull in any rogue vampire. Not anymore. The younger ones like Alec and Jane made it far too easy.

Come to think of it, the leaders of the Volturi - Caius, Marcus and Aro - hardly ever requested his presence at their quarters anymore, nor was he invited to the university lecturer's big speech at the start of the month. In fact, they had not even included him in the centenary dinner; an event that he had founded. Instead they had sent him on a dead-end assignment to South America, seeking out a horde of strays. Felix grated his teeth together, another superfluous human mannerism. When he had not found the rouges, he'd suspected that the mission was bogus; South America had been a waste of time. Now, he was certain of it. They were pushing him away, and now they wanted to dispose of him entirely. This confirmed it; Felix's position within the Volturi had finally slid off the scale.

"Felix?" The American said three hours later. The phone was in Felix's hand before the first chime had fully rung out.

"Tell me everything," Felix snapped back, trying hard not to snarl. "I want to know your name, I want to know about your gift, and above all I want to know what you see about me."

He waited in silence for a moment. Humans were so slow to speak. They had to take a moment to collect their thoughts. They needed time to think.

"My name is Benjamin," the stranger said, and this time Felix detected a strange urgency in his voice, perhaps desperation.

Felix softened his tone. "You said I will kill you, and then I will be killed. How? And why?"

"Everything's changed," Benjamin replied. "An opportunity has arisen for them. The course of events are worse, the setting is different, and we no longer have months..."

"What do you mean? You said two months."

"I told you it has changed," Benjamin said, his voice louder.

"So how long do we have?"

"It happens in twenty hours."

"Tomorrow night?" Felix said, twisting slightly on the spot. "And I still...?"

"Yes," Benjamin said. "Yes, you still die, because you didn't listen." He sounded perplexed. "Felix, you gave me your word."

'_I didn't actually say that,'_ Felix thought, although already he was starting to change his mind. Benjamin had to have the gift. Not just because he'd known about that little brunette appetizer the other night, but Benjamin was able to see that he had no intention of protecting him. He'd seen through the lies so now Felix had to be sincere, after all, if this American was telling the truth then he was a fool to play games, not when his life depended upon it. "Okay, you have my word. I shall spare your life at all costs," he said. "Now what is this all about?"

The tension seemed to ease on the other end of the phone line, perhaps it was a simple exhale from Benjamin that Felix detected.

"It's all comes down to the girl," Benjamin said.

"What girl?" Felix could think of nothing but his own life.

"The one born of a human mother and a vampire father. You know who I am talking about."

Felix took a breath. It was not often he did so, but this surprised him. This was the girl the others had been talking about. Whispers had floated around the palace. This is the girl who had them all in a panic. She was fully-grown now, and they knew the Prophecy.

Felix nodded down the phone. "You must mean Renesmee Cullen."

Outside the great ballroom and across the palace Felix felt a great trembling. The others were back. But it was too soon for the Opera; it hadn't even been an hour since they left. As the marching grew louder, Felix knew that the time had come. The doors to the great ballroom were thrown open.

"There is something you must do," Benjamin said, throwing his words out faster.

The line went dead.

FIVE WEEKS EARLIER

Chapter One: Benjamin

I'm not sure when I had my first vision. Prior to June 2nd, I cast them off as weird dreams; too much coffee before bed stirring up the cortisol or endorphins or whatever caffeine reportedly does to the human body, which went on to cause these vivid hallucinations in my sleep. My mother - prone to nerves – had already sought advice from her homeopath, who amongst other things had me on herbal tea instead of coffee, and a myriad of pills lined up in a plastic box like soldiers on the front line. Each one came with an offering of peace, a white flag in my self-conflicting mind.

But it didn't change anything. I still saw them.

There was the tall man I'd nicknamed Frankenstein, not just because of his sheer size, but for his impossibly flat jaw and bulging muscles that pushed through his clothes. There was a student from the school I interned at called Jennifer Moroney, a young toddler who lived by the beach, a handful of adults ranging from late-teens to elderly, and then there was Snow White. Like the majority of my visions, I'd never met her in real life and so didn't know her name, but she was the one who puzzled me most. My visions of her were distinctly odd. For one thing, the visions were all the same.

At first I thought it was déjà vu, but then looking back, I noticed subtle differences. Snow that wrapped around the window-sills or soft pink petals stuck to the sole of a pair of Birkenstocks by her bed. In each vision Snow White was asleep and in slumber she looked serene; porcelain skin from which I'd adopted the term Snow White, with thick auburn hair in matted waves across the pillow. Although closed, her eyes were wide-set with dark eyebrows that framed her face. She had the cheeks of an adolescent, not quite chiseled with not even the slightest warmth of color.

In the latest vision she wore pajamas; the old fashioned type with a pink and red crisscross pattern and a button down front. This time it was still dark outside. Although I couldn't see it, I knew that once she woke and checked her phone it would read 2am across its screen.

But the thing that really got to me was the part that remained the same. Each time she awoke suddenly, bolt upright in her bed. Horror, pain, confusion and desperation bubbled upon the surface of her sultry face, laced with years of anguish she could not have possibly known.

Could this girl see the future too?

On June 2nd it happened.

Some would call it a breakthrough, although I definitely would not. Jennifer Moroney was hit by a green Ford Mustang as she passed through the school gates. She was thrown to the steps of the science block some twenty feet away and her bag spat out Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet onto the road, which was unduly destroyed beneath the wheels of a bus. But no one paid attention to the book, least of all me. I'd seen the whole scene before, in my dream back on April 8th. I knew where her body would land and like everyone else in the lot that day, I ran towards her as she hit the ground.

While the green mustang sped away, a crowd amassed around Jennifer's body with screams that pierced the gathering clouds and brought forth a heavy shower. Then some other teachers came running too. Everyone panicking. Everyone desperate. Everyone horrified that something like this could happen in the small southern town of Biloxi.

Before the loud swirling sound of the ambulance it was just their voices that filled the thick wet air. Everyone had some burning question on the tip of their tongues. The only question on my lips, _'how did I, Benjamin Brandon know that Jennifer Moroney was going to die?'_

The future was not something that I wanted to know. Gut reaction, take it away, I was getting by just fine knowing only what had gone before. It took all my courage to stand up and lecture to the class day after day, but this was an obstacle that even I couldn't fathom.

I must have played it a hundred times in my head. Every time I closed my eyes, I watched the green car sweep Jennifer off her feet, her schoolbag fly off, the car speed away. The detail had ingrained itself into my memory like etched metal that could never be worn down. I know what I saw that day in the parking lot - a young girl wearing a yellow ribbed vest with white edging and faded blue jeans. Everyone saw it. Yet in my vision she was writing a text message on a pink phone with diamantes in the pattern of Hello Kitty across the back. The text was to Brad; she was telling him she was looking forward to meeting him in Chino's for lunch. She was chewing Wrigley's gum, which smelt of peppermint, her hair was tied back in a high ponytail with a pink band with gold flecks that sparkled in the sun and she dragged her heels on the sidewalk as she walked in flat gladiator sandals liking the way they caught the concrete flags underfoot and made a clicking sound.

Yes, I could visualize each and every feeling that she had that morning as she walked to school. It was the first time I knew beyond all reasonable doubt that the visions were more than just vivid dreams; they were premonitions. After that I started paying more attention. After that I started to believe.

Even so, it still took a week to fully sink in; the same amount of time it took for Jennifer's parents to prepare the funeral and for the relationship with my parents to reach a new low.

"My friend Rita told Liz, and Liz told Jesse, that her daughter Clara sees things," my mother said on the eve of the funeral. I'd picked out my newest black suit and had brought it downstairs to press.

"Who's daughter?" I said, hooking the hanger on the door-knob before sitting down to eat.

She pushed her glasses up on the bridge of her nose. "Rita's daughter, Clara. She always tells stories of when she was younger but they never happened. Rita didn't just the leave the dogs in the house when they went skiing up in Vancouver, and they definitely didn't lose Clara for two hours after school back in the fall. She just comes out with these things; they're just made up."

"You think I'm making this up?" I stabbed into the tuna pasta bake. It was one of my favorite meals, but I didn't have the appetite for it.

"No, no, it's just Rita's daughter is so insistent that these 'events' actually occurred. Maybe she's confused? Maybe you are too?"

I pushed the plate away so that it scraped on the glass table. My father continued to eat his meal quietly while my mother carried on with enough concern for the two of them.

"I saw this happen two months ago, and now that girl is dead," I said, standing up.

My father glanced up for long enough to show disapproval before returning his attentions to his blackberry; an item which he openly hated, yet lost himself in whenever his opinion might be sought.

"Rita said it was called False Memory Syndrome, an emerging disorder. It's not very well documented yet, but the doctors, they all take it seriously, and I can see why it would be so realistic. You were right there when that girl died. Maybe the shock..."

"It's not shock, mom."

"Don't raise your voice at your mother." This time my father didn't even look up to see me take my plate. I brushed the remains into the bin and stacked it in the dishwasher.

"Well did you write it down?" She continued. "Perhaps if next time you were to write it down and show us, we'd be able to help? Come to us before it happens?"

Before it happens. Like I was supposed to know when she would be hit.

I shook my head and left the room.

They closed school for the morning so the entire student body as well as staff could attend the funeral. Her parents sat at the front. The mother, a larger lady, looked gaunt in the face and trembled like a leaf. The father was motionless all but for his back teeth, which he crunched down on giving his jaw definition. There was an older brother who looked about my age in a pinstripe suit that suggested he'd used his degree to get himself a whole lot further than I had; perhaps a graduate position in the city.

The majority of the school had known her as Jenny the cheerleader. I didn't even know that, but then I had only taken my trainee role here nine weeks ago. I had known her face from around campus and recognized her immediately in the vision, but now that meant only one thing. I had known more than two months ago that she would be hit by that car – I'd been given a head-start to save her, and of that I had failed.

As I listened to the headmaster's eulogy, praising Jennifer for being such a hard working, bright, sunny student, I received the vision that changed my life forever. Perhaps it was my karma, but to me it just looked like my death.


	2. Chapter 2 - Renesmee

Chapter Two: Renesmee

The room was crowded and I was outnumbered by the pack, fifteen to one. There were speeches, a derisory buffet, then the first dance. It wasn't an exhaustive list of obstacles. I had endured longer than this in the midst of humans, but then it struck me; the warm, delicate scent.

It reminded me of poppies dancing in the breeze, mixed with mature apples, juicy and succulent. There was crushed lavender in the blend, and something that provoked images of a fresh harvest, something that was perhaps not altogether quenching but intriguing nonetheless.

Sixty or so guests lined the room, arranged in neat formation on long bench tables around a small timber dance floor. The sweet smell seeped from them twisting in a dangerous haze around me.

As for the humans, their eyes faced forward obliviously, nodding and pretending to follow the front where an older lady stood. She shuffled cards within her palms, speaking fast in a foreign tongue that I wasn't supposed to understand. It was Mrs Uley who spoke, and she reminisced the couple's long and happy courtship with pride. But she too was oblivious of my raging thirst.

Beside me Jacob leaned forward concentrating on the speech. This was the time when couples would normally hold hands or whisper to each other to pass the time. Not Jake and I; we weren't like that, well not yet. I was there because he'd imprinted on me, and in wolf terms that was a pretty big deal.

So, sitting in the crowded room in front of all these people, he wouldn't have even had a clue that something was up. Not in the presence of his fellow shape-shifters - who could phase into wolves - would he have believed that I, Renesmee Cullen, half-vampire, half-human, could be a threat.

How had he forgotten how dangerous I was?

Four tanned faces sat opposite me, with their faces turned at right angles towards Mrs Uley. Those who didn't understand the Quileute language wore blank, jaded expressions. They chewed at bread knots and drew patterns with the confetti along the table. But that was all incidental. It wasn't their behavior that aggravated my appetite, nor was it Mrs Uley's speech that caught my breath. It was the overwhelming and irresistible smell of human blood, which made my throat flicker and throb.

I stopped the air from flowing into my lungs, something my father, Edward, had taught me to do. It wasn't painful at first, I could hold my breath for a long time but unlike the full-bloods I couldn't persevere indefinitely. I had ten minutes, max.

I pursed my lips tighter.

Hot, dry, aching, craving.

Should I bolt now, complain of a stomach bug and make for the bathroom? Or would that attract unnecessary attention? No, that would be blatant. Vampires are never ill. Jacob would guess something was wrong, he would follow me, and he would see me for who I really am.

I stayed. Three minutes passed, maybe four. My throat continued to pulsate and prickle in equal measure building up slowly for the scent that preyed upon me, so fresh. Try as I might, I couldn't keep my lips closed, I had to inhale it more. And as the aroma encompassed me, any words of warning I had been armed with melted into insignificance. I was no longer afraid of this nostalgia; I had to embrace it.

If only I was like my mother, Bella, so soft and kind; with a gift of resisting the overwhelming urges for human blood. Although ashamed by my thoughts, the desperation rippled through my body with an urgency I couldn't ignore.

I waited, hands clasped and body tensed for another few moments. But it wasn't the clapping signaling the end of the speech that broke my concentration. Nor was it Jacob rising to his feet to address the groom. It was the shrill scream that pierced the air and stopped me cold.

All at once I heard screams, growls and galloping paws, but it was too late. An innocent was dead and the treaty had been broken.

The monster inside me had won.

I woke up violently, teeth bared and ready for attack. The thirst I had dreamt of so vividly lingered at the back of my esophagus, burning like lava up my throat. Another nightmare; the third this week alone. Only this time Jacob was there, and even he couldn't stop me.

I reached for the phone.

"Mom?" I said, in a voice that I tried hard to keep even. "It's happened again." This time the rift in my tone betrayed me, and tears spilt down my cheeks.

"Nessie, what happened? Another dream?" Bella said.

_Nightmare._ I visualized all those horrified wedding guests; their aghast expressions forged into the forefront of my mind. Jacob's indignant look as he saw beneath my facade, when for the first time, he saw me for who I really was. A vampire… a murderer.

I collected myself enough to take her through it from the beginning. How I'd been at Rachel Black's wedding and how I'd lost control. My gift of portraying visions was uncomfortably good and it was times like these when I wished I couldn't recall such intense detail. The body, the blood, the wolves, the expression Jacob failed to hide.

"Oh," she said, when I was done talking. "Nes, it wasn't real."

"But it will be," I said, pulling myself up from the center of my four-poster bed. I tried to shake it off like it was a tangible object that would flake off and melt away into insignificance. Yet the sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach remained. "Jacob's sister gets married in five weeks," I said. "And I know what you're gonna say, Mom, but…" I chewed over the words. "I think I should be discussing this with him? If he knew what to expect, maybe he could help?"

"Discuss this with Jacob? And start a feud with the wolves?" She said, her tone an octave higher. "We've been over this again and again. Our relationship with them is fragile enough as it is, held together only by you. Jacob's source of strength is from the Quileute's, his people. You know I love Jacob, but don't you see the kind of dilemma this presents? You understand what I'm saying? He imprinted on you, which means he's totally and utterly connected to you, as you are to him, and a revelation like this would completely tear him up; pull him too tightly between his heart and his gut instinct."

"I know, I know, but if he really is, you know, imprinted, shouldn't he understand?"

This time she paused.

"Nes, you can talk to us, you don't need to worry him. Your father and I are always just on the other end of the phone. And you know Alice, Jazz, Carlisle, Esme, Rose and Emmett are all there for you too. They'll understand far more than Jacob ever could."

I jerked forward, alarmed. "You haven't told them have you?"

"No, of course not."

I pushed the covers off and wandered across the room, kicking yesterday's jeans from the sheepskin rug to the corner of the room where a pile had started to form.

"Thank you," I added, stopping beneath an archway that led to a long, narrow, stonewalled room. At the far end, a full-length mirror reflected my nearly full-grown image back at me. A tangle of mud-colored curls tumbled past my chin resting just shy of my shoulder blades. It framed my paltry expression, clear white skin, and eyes as black as night.

"And I guess you're right about Jake but I just feel like I'm lying to him. If I lost control in real life—."

"You're stronger than that. I know you are," she said.

Neither of us spoke, as I pulled on a pair of black skinny jeans and an oversized purple top.

"Should we come home?" She added, dubiously.

"Don't be silly," I shot back, easing a pair of boots over the tight denim. "You're home so often, I could hardly ask you to return again."

She sighed down the receiver. "Okay point taken, no need to be sarcastic. Things have been hectic over here, but we're definitely coming home at the weekend." Another promise they wouldn't keep.

My parents left Forks back in the fall to study bio-chemistry at university. That's when the nightmares had started. I'd stayed in the cottage, alone, which I thought I could handle, seeing as the rest of the Cullens, my extended family lived in the main house on the other side of the estate. They'd asked Jacob to keep an eye on me too, which was a given seeing as we spent so much time together. Technically speaking he was the one I should have been able to confide in after all this time, although that was easier said than done. He was a werewolf whose sole mission was to kill vampires. Therein the dichotomy did lie.

If I told him about my dreams, he would no doubt back away, or worse, suffocate me with overprotective policing. And so, as my fingers tapped in his number on the cell phone in my palm, I was not upset to reach his voicemail. Maybe my parents were right; it was not his burden to bear.

I took the quickest route to the main house; through the woods, over the river, and along the line of silver birches leading to the bi-fold glass doors that punctuated the back of the main house. For the first time ever, the doors were locked.

Strange.

I banged impatiently on the glass.

"Morning Nessie," Alice said, coming round the corner and making her way towards me in no hurry whatsoever. She grinned as she approached with a knowing look in the sparkle of her rich golden eyes.

I pushed the handle as she turned the key.

"It's Carlie to you, remember!"

Carlie was actually my middle name but I was assuming the hard task of adopting it to be more in-fitting in school. Nothing spelled 'outsider' like my birth name, 'Renesmee', and the only person who couldn't understand my decision was the very one who had picked it. My mother.

"Since when do we lock doors around here?" I said to Alice.

She shrugged. "Dunno."

Typical, they'd actually forgotten I was even out there.

"You sleep okay, Carlie?"

"Fine, as always." I shrugged defensively visualizing the nightmare once more. The thing about a psychic like Alice was that she had a pretty accurate idea of everyone else's next move, but not mine. She'd never been able to see me. Perhaps because I was only a half-blood; half them and half human? I studied her face trying to gauge if she'd been told about my nightmares, but she'd already moved onto the sofa, kicking her legs up onto the coffee table.

"Where is everyone?" I said.

"Hmm, Carlisle's at work, and Rosalie, Emmett and Esme are waiting for you." She picked up a magazine and started to leaf through it.

Perfect. That would be just the medicine I needed. "You coming?" I said.

"Nope." Her yellow eyes glowed.

"And Jacob?" Dull remnants of his scent were everywhere, as usual.

"Not sure, not seen him today." She looked up and peered through the windows across the forest like he would pop out at any given moment. "Who are you kidding? It's Sunday morning, he'll still be in bed."

There was movement but it wasn't from outside. I turned towards the soft patter of footsteps down the stairs.

"Hey Jazz," I said.

"Not seen him either," he replied nonchalantly, wrinkling his nose slightly. I ignored it and checked my watch. It would have to wait.

"I'll catch up with him after the hunt then." I raised my voice slightly as I left the lounge although they would have heard me just fine even if I'd whispered.

I found Esme with Rose and Emmett in the garage.

"You ready?" I said. They turned to me with large, ebony eyes and grinned.

Later that night I lay awake fearing another nightmare.

'It's only a dream, Nessie,' my mother had said, for the hundredth time, and, 'I'll bet you won't have another one now you've hunted.'

She was wrong.

The next morning I woke with a growl and a shiver that rocked me to my core. Another nightmare. My longing for human blood was getting worse.


	3. Chapter 3 - Benjamin

Chapter Three: Benjamin

Had it not been for the antique clock that had hung in the hallway for all of my twenty-three years, I don't think I would have known how long I had till 'it happened'. It was only recently that one of the parts had seized up, prompting me to buy a digital projection clock; the ones with the temperature and a guess at the weather forecast along the bottom in tiny red illuminated letters. My father had grunted. Such a small item didn't warrant anything more. My mother on the other hand had told me to take the thing to my room. _'What good were such technological items when they caused a blot on the scenery?' _She'd said. I had responded that perhaps she was blind and the hallway was overdue for a refurb but despite our difference of opinion, I had placed it up on the bookcase projecting a variety of information onto the ceiling that I could stare at from the sofa in the lounge through the double doors.

It was just as well for the clock really, because at the point I foresaw my life being taken from me, all I could take from the vision were tiny little numbers that showed on the corner of the room just below the burglar alarm. 18th September 2014. I had three months to somehow prevent my own death.

That's when the clock really started ticking.

By the end of the first week, I had successfully convinced my parents that I was completely crazy, and it was only when our voices were raised over a bowl of jambalaya that my father had said _'you'll end up in Biloxi Mental Institute like your Great Aunt Mary.'_

Interesting.

Then I started researching the family.

As it turned out, Mary Alice Brandon was born in 1902 raised in my hometown of Biloxi. Before her twenty-first birthday she was admitted to the asylum on the basis of schizophrenia, which she called psychic but they labeled as clinically insane. That would be her last home. She died less than a year later.

Back home, they rarely referenced her. She was born too many generations ago to be remembered first hand, and no one talks openly about their family nut-job, even an ancestral one. Only her mysterious death had been brought up once, over Halloween, and not for any of the right reasons. My uncle Lionel, an old fellow who'd served in the army, once claimed that she never died as they'd never recovered the body. We'd all laughed and joked that maybe he had the strange _'Brandon' _genes as well. My father later blamed it on Uncle Lionel's stint in Vietnam. Dad was into the sciences and was a strong believer that everything stemmed from cause and effect, and everything had a scientific explanation. Perhaps it was that which troubled him so much when I announced that I could see the future. No logical explanation can ever justify that.

"Mary Brandon you say?" A stern looking woman said. Her badge read 'Rita' with 'Biloxi Heath' etched below in small neat letters. She was the facility's president with a strange resemblance to my junior school headmistress; thick eyebrows, wirery black hair and sun spots dappled across her hands. Immediately I felt like I was back in second grade: small for my age, desperately compliant and borderline introvert, with nerves radiating like cactus spikes from across the desk. Not the strongest mix of ingredients for high school survival and certainly not the right genes to investigate with. Yet here I was; sitting in the mental institute that had claimed the life of my Aunt Mary nearly a century ago.

Externally they had improved the appearance of the place since the photo that was posted on their website. The bricks had each been cleaned and re-pointed, the building was spacious and the grounds well kept with neat walled gardens for the patients to enjoy. From what I saw it of the inmates, it seemed that they'd put their best ones on show.

Rita was quiet while she exhausted the computer database and then sighed as she started manually searching an old record book while I sweated in the hot, humid room.

"An ancestor you say?"

"Yes, my father's Great Aunt."

She peered at me over her spectacles.

"It's for a school project," I added. "I'm setting an assignment for the students and want to give them an example of how to conduct their research."

"You're the teacher?" Eyebrows raised.

I felt like a schoolboy again.

"I want the students to demonstrate a member of their family that they admire."

She took of her glasses and sighed. "It says here that she died whilst at this facility," she said, tapping the book. "She was twenty-one, no education, no achievements to mention, and if there were any they would have been noted here, we pride ourselves on rewarding our—."

"I'm sure you do." I checked my watch. "But I am trying to build a picture of her successes, and learn why she was who she was."

She looked at me for a long time.

"Is there nothing you can tell me at all?" I said. "Nothing about her extra abilities?"

More raised eyebrows and this time the start of a frown which interrupted the smoking wrinkles around her puckered lips.

"We only have her name, the date she was admitted and the doctor who signed her off. Dr Slay. In fact he ended up here himself later in life. I suppose that is the greatest compliment. At least he sent her somewhere that he would consider—."

"I know. The facility is great. I'll be sure to tell my future children in case I turn doo-lally later in life."

She snapped the book shut. "All I'm saying Mr Brandon, is that I don't think there is anything commendable that we can offer you about this patient," she said, shaking her head. "Don't you have any other family members to make an example out of?"

I looked out of the window. It was a nice day and there were plenty of inhabitants enjoying the sunshine. "I think you're right. I'll just have to write about someone else."

She smiled, no teeth. "I'm sorry I couldn't have been of more help."

I stood up and shook her hand. "You tried your hardest," I said, in a tone that bordered on sarcastic.

I didn't head straight to my car. Outside there were some benches which overlooked the gardens. Three people sat together speaking quietly on one side and to the other was a young lady. Thirty max. Given her age, I decided against approaching her and made my way to where an older man sat between two middle-aged women. They seemed compus-mentus, but I soon established that they thought they were being interviewed for the local breakfast show on the merits of living in Disney Land. Cuckoo or what? But they were able to pronounce all the words clearly and orderly and the old guy with the receding hairline that was merging with his bald patch even threw in the odd joke, but of course they had no clue about Mary Brandon. She was long gone before their time. She would have died before any inhabitant of this facility was even conceived.

When I followed one lady's gaze, she was staring straight at a cemetery, which fringed the gardens; an unsubtle and untimely reminder of where I was headed, sooner than anyone thought.

I had given up and was twisting the key to my car in the driver's door when I saw an old-timer approach. At first I assumed he was another inhabitant, who had probably mistaken me for Elvis, but then he announced he was the janitor to no one in particular and proceeded to sweep the gravel with a broom.

I nodded and tried to ignore him politely and get on my way. I was done talking, and had no ambition to strike up any more conversation.

"What do you want?" He said, starry eyed, walking in my direction.

I looked behind me but the car lot was empty.

"You, boy," he said. "What do you want here?" There was mounting aggression in his voice.

I tried to get into the car. No more crazy people.

"Don't go stirring up things here," he said. "She's long gone. She's not coming back."

I got into the car, put the key in the ignition and attempted to pull away, but he was crossing in front of the hood.

"I know what happened," he said, and I pressed my foot firmly on the brake. Then I wound down the window.

"They all knew about her premonitions you know, but they covered it up. They covered her up. Can't have something like that tarnishing the place."

"Something like what?" I said. How did he know what I was even here for?

"She wasn't crazy. She had the gift," he continued.

"I know, that's what I'm trying to find out about," I said, wiping the beads of sweat off my brow. It was hotter out here than back in the building. "Do you know about her?" I said. The a/c hadn't kicked in and hair dryer heat blew from the vents, like fire-breathing dragons.

He carried on as if he never heard me. "She never died you know. They said she did to cover their tracks, but she never did." He swung his head from side to side, like an exaggerated twitch.

"So, if she never died here, where did she go?" I said. She escaped? Perhaps if I could follow her path, it would lead me to her grandchildren or something? Some long lost cousins I never knew about? They might be able to help me.

"Do you know if she had any family of her own?" I said.

"No family. Cold one."

"Excuse me?"

"She could not bear children… in her state."

"In what state? How did she escape? What was so bad?"

He started shaking his head again, back and forth, back and forth.

"Please, if there's anything you can tell me, I would really appreciate it. I need to find out about her. It would help me tremendously if you could shed any light on her."

"You come here and threaten me?" He said, his voice rising louder and louder.

"Cool it," I said. "I was only asking. I'm not threatening you at all. You've been very helpful."

"She is a cold one," he said, again, and this time he was shouting. "She is very bad. Very, very bad. You stay away from her. You stay away from Forks."

I killed the engine, but it seemed to set him off. He was swinging his arms around his body, acting insane. Maybe he was a patient who thought he was the janitor? Surely he wasn't of stable mind?

"What's Forks?" I said. "Is that a place?" I tried to recall my geography assignment from senior year, which was based upon a weekend field trip up in Seattle; a long trek to count blades of grass from which I got very average marks. "Is that where her family are? Is that where she's buried?"

"Of course not," he said, his eyes dancing. "No grave. No children. I told you. No children. Not in her state."

"Then what's in Forks?"

"She lives on."

"What?" I said. The guy was clearly deranged. "You know that would make her the oldest woman alive." I shook my head and started up the engine again.

"Oldest woman; still a girl."

"Thanks anyway," I said, rolling up the window. Crazy people. "You be careful now old man."

"You stay away from Forks," he repeated as I started to pull away. Behind me a look of alarm washed over his leathered face.

'Cold one,' was the last thing I heard before I wound up my window fully and got the hell out of that place.


	4. Chapter 4 - Renesmee Carlie

Chapter Four: Carlie

If I was normal I would probably have been putting a piece of thickly buttered toast in my mouth, whilst grabbing my school bag and heading to the car, but I wasn't. I could practically drive to school with my eyes closed, and I wasn't particular for breakfast. Instead I paced around the main house with a deep seeded agitation. Last night I dreamt I was in his father's home in La Push. His father tried to stop me coming in, like he knew what I was about to do, then I launched at him. Jacob's dad.

"Morning," a deep masculine voice cut the silence. Jacob, finally. He let himself in the front door as I made my way over. He wore his usual black suit trousers, shiny shoes and was still pulling a light yellow shirt over his head as he crossed the threshold. I caught a glimpse of his warm bronze skin before he pulled the shirt over his chest.

"You're cutting it fine, J," I said, catching him smirk. "You run here?"

"Sure beats the rush hour," he replied, locking eyes with mine. He only ever got dressed here when he'd phased, which meant he'd overslept again. "Sorry I didn't call you back yesterday. Long day."

I shrugged. "On patrol?"

"Uh huh, with Leah." He ran his hand through his hair. There wasn't really enough length for it to need smoothing down and it returned almost immediately to its spiky position. "What's up?"

"Oh, it was nothing," I said, breaking eye contact. Everything about Jacob was sincere. He wore integrity like a cloak protecting his every move, yet here I was; the one he trusted the most, and I couldn't tell him the truth.

He didn't seem to care about the call and approached in one sinuous bound, planting a red-hot kiss of my forehead. For once, he lingered longer than the customary peck before heading towards the kitchen.

"Rose, Alice," Jacob said, nodding politely at them in the lounge as he passed. Alice smiled from the sofa and they exchanged a few friendly words; nothing too inquisitive but gracious nonetheless. Beside her Rose stayed vehemently still, pretending not to hold her breath, although she always did. When she saw me looking she smiled curtly at Jacob. In general it took her longer than most to warm to new people, and with Jacob it had taken even longer than that.

Jacob's father, Billy, broke his back in a car accident fifteen years ago, in a crash that had claimed his mother's life. He had fought for his life in intensive care and despite the doctors' negative prognosis; he has pulled through, albeit confined to a wheelchair. He couldn't even fight. And I dreamt I'd targeted him.

"Are you alright?" Jake said.

When I looked up, he was leaning on the kitchen counter-top staring straight at me.

"Actually J, I do need to speak to you," I said. Bad timing; the others were in earshot.

"Yeah, me too." His clear eyes lit up looking both curious and dubious. "Are you free for dinner on Friday night?"

It interrupted my carefully prepared thoughts.

"Jacob Black, are you asking me on a date?"

There was a sudden surge in his heartbeat and he paused mid-way through opening the refrigerator door, turned halfway and looked at me inquisitively.

"Sue invited us for dinner, with the others…" he said cautiously, his lips pressed together. "I was hoping you'd come?"

I raised my eyebrows slightly higher than they ought to have.

"It's kind of the last time we will all be together before my sister's wedding," he furthered. "I thought it would be nice?"

"Sorry, just the thought of actual food, yuk." And the company. "Anyway your sister doesn't get married for another month at least," I said.

"But Paul goes out of town next week, and by the time he gets back there'll be no time." His face knotted slightly and he turned his attentions back to the refrigerator. A peel of air whistled as he opened it and reached for a can.

"Tell Esme, Coke would be better next time," he said, wiping his lip.

"Talk about ungrateful," Rosalie muttered from the other room. I heard soft pads on the sandstone and seconds later both Rose and Alice came into view, Alice first, with a book about DNA in her hand. This year the whole family had gone genetics crazy; even my mother who had hated biology at school. I was the only one in the family with actual blood pulsing through my veins and the whole concept amazed them.

"Helpful, more like… your guests would appreciate it," Jacob replied. He paused, seeming to concentrate on the can. "Alice, what do you think?" He said.

She looked up from the book. "About what, the soda?"

"Nah, about Nessie, I mean Carlie, coming to Sue's for dinner with her Grandpa Charlie." He over-pronounced the last few words for added effect.

"It's not my call but just so you know, Carlie, your father hates it when you go there as we can't keep a watch over you in La Push."

"For real? It's not exactly dangerous," Jacob said, growling between his teeth. "And she doesn't need you to watch her when I'm around."

Alice raised her hands in the air. "You asked… don't shoot the messenger."

"If you ask me she shouldn't be going to forbidden lands at all, not now and not for the wedding," Rosalie said.

For once I agreed. Ever since I had first dreamed that I'd broken the treaty, I had avoided Jacob's home-town, La Push. Somewhere deeply buried, I had urges to kill them, which made me the ultimate traitor on their lands.

"I didn't ask you," he shot back, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Yeah, about the wedding—," I started to say but Rosalie distracted him, muttering, 'some treaty,' under her breath.

"Anyway, so are you coming on Friday or not?" Jacob said, returning his gaze to me with an impatient frown.

"Will your dad be there?" Don't think about the dream.

"Yeah, of course." His frown deepened, and I tried not to show my discomfort. I'd have to face up to him sometime, when this imprinting thing really kicked in. Jacob studied my face for longer than necessary before taking another gulp of his drink.

"Unless you want to go somewhere without the others?" He added quietly.

"No, no, it's fine. I'll go to Sue's," I said, rather quickly. I glanced at my watch again. "Time's up, I'll be late."

"No you won't," Jacob retorted. "Want me to pick you up on Friday night?" He called out after me, to the amusement of both Alice and Rosalie.

"Nah. Grandpa Charlie can to bring me." I left them in the kitchen and made a mental note to call Charlie at the station on the way to school.

It took me twelve minutes to drive to school, a record I planned to beat tomorrow, weather permitting. I parked up next to Dexter's rusted ford at the back of the lot and surreptitiously angled towards the main entrance as the bell rang.

Forks High School. It had become a family tradition, and not for any of the conventional reasons. If I didn't go, then the others would most probably be jealous, and understandably so. They'd been through high school at least a dozen times if not more. We had a facade to uphold in this town, and my role was the newest adoptee of Dr and Mrs Cullen.

Mrs Foster was stacking handouts on the front of my desk as I sunk into my chair. I took one and passed the pile sideways to Jaynie who caught my eye. I'd made a few friends at school; not enough to call a crowd, but I had Jaynie with whom I shared most of my classes, and another girl called Ruth, and sometimes a few others who tagged along with them.

Jaynie leaned forward with a wily expression across her face. "Who's Jacob?" She said.

Interesting question. I raised my eyebrows.

"Why have you never mentioned him before? How do you know him, and is he single?"

"Whooh, start again," I said. "Isn't it a bit early in the day for the Spanish inquisition?"

"C'mon, tell me, he knows you." She thrust the papers backwards keeping her eyes locked on mine.

"Oh really?" I said, returning the eye contact with an attempt at sincerity. I could still smell his scent from this morning on my clothes.

"He said he knows you very well."

"I'm not sure I know who you mean," I said. Carlisle was very exact in his instructions about school. Don't invite them over. Don't socialize with them if you don't have to and don't tell them too much. For the most part that was easy, especially with Jaynie. She was self-centred, and usually gullible; maybe the latter because she didn't really have that much interest in anyone other than herself.

"Tall guy, olive skin, short spiky hair, super worked out?" She continued. Her face lit up as she spoke with a kind of approbation, and for the first time ever, I was grateful that he wasn't in the market for a girlfriend.

"Hmm… sounds like a stud. I think I would have mentioned someone like that?" Jake would never let me live that kind of comment down.

"Really?" Her face lit up. "I thought he was winding me up. You know some things he said sounded just like you but then he said that he watched you grow up, and I knew he had to be lying cos you only just moved here last year." Her voice squealed an octave higher and Mrs Foster twisted round settling a cantankerous glare upon the both of us. Her eyes widened exemplifying the deep furrows of her brow.

"If you two are quite finished," she said with a long pointed nose angled in our direction. She spoke with a nasal resonance to her tone, which made her lectures about as dull as the pallid blouse that ruffled around her craggy neck. Jaynie blushed. It turned my stomach; I hated to see anyone blush. We both straightened up, eyes to the front.

Mrs Foster lectured for another twenty minutes of monotonous dialogue, neither interesting nor informative. I'd stopped listening to her early on and was instead planning a way to tell Jacob that I couldn't go to his sister's wedding.

Jaynie and I weren't in the next class together. It was modern history, and she'd never shown any interest in that. We didn't share chemistry together afterwards, but given our classrooms were side by side, we tended to bump into each other. Jaynie was lingering outside the two classroom doors as I approached.

"I wonder if anyone from school has been out with that Jacob?" She mused, as I approached. The question wasn't especially directed at me, although amongst the herd of students around us, there was no one else she could have been speaking to.

"Is that what you've been thinking about this whole time?" I said. "Don't even bother with those Reservation boys, they're just not worth it."

Her green eyes snapped wide open. "I never told you he was 'a Reservation boy,' Carlie." She said, making quote marks with her fingers as she spoke. Then she pushed herself off the wall she was leaning on, and came closer to me than I would have liked. "So you do know him?"

"More to the point, how do you know him?" I said.

"You always answer a question with a question, Carlie. Not this time. So what's the story?" Her brows scrunched together. Around us the student body had started to drain into the classrooms.

"He's just a friend."

"You've never mentioned him before?" She looked at me dubiously. "Is he still in high school? I mean he didn't look like he was still in high school but, well, you never know with those guys, they're all so big," she said, "and this guy, Seth, said you two were more than good friends. What does that mean?" She raised a finely arched eyebrow at me. "You didn't tell me you were seeing anyone. Are you two, like, romantic?"

"Well, Seth was wrong." And on this occasion he really was. We weren't - as Jaynie had so delicately put it - romantic. I'd been told a thousand times how we were going to be a couple, but that was one weird subject. If we were destined to fall truly, madly, deeply in love and spend the rest of eternity together, then why was I so scared when I thought he was asking me out on a date?

"He's a family friend. That's all," I said, and ran into my next class.


	5. Chapter 5 - Jacob

Chapter Five: Jacob

A text message from Carlie pinged through as I bit into a thick wholemeal sub. A problem. Okay, so why didn't she just call me? I know we're connected and all, but that doesn't extend to the telepathy I share with my pack when we're all in worf form. Convential methods of communication between Carlie and I still apply. I took a swig of Coke and pressed down on speed dial two.

It rung out. Typical. Now I wouldn't be able to get her off my mind, before school cut out.

I imprinted on Renesmee - or Carlie, her middle name, as she now liked to go by - the day she was born. The feeling is hard to describe let alone explain but even when she was a baby, that first glance captured me in a totally new kind of web, and my heart solidified; it became whole for the first time in my life. She was never like _them_. She was the most innocent, angelic child I'd even seen. Her smell had the faint scent of theirs but somehow it didn't repulse me; it intoxicated me. And maybe because of that, I wished Carlie could just tell me what was on her mind without worthless text messages pointing out that there may be a problem.

I was going to leave a message on her voicemail but my boss, Mr Mattherson, caught my eye. He was waving and flapping some documents in his hands. I tipped the remainder of the packet of potato chips into my mouth, rolled up the blueprints I'd been staring at for the past half hour, and made my way over to his office. It was old fashioned, with navy blue carpet tiles, one of those first generation suspended ceilings, not the type that had lights sunk into it or anything; there was still just a florescent strip that gave off a neon yellow glow.

"We got it!" He said, before I'd had chance to close the door behind me. "Or rather you got it, Jacob. This is a massive contract for Endermons. Well done!" He let the small docket of papers in his hand fall to the desk with a noise that sounded like a slap.

I shrugged. "That's great sir," still thinking about Carlie's weird message. Was it something to do with Sue's this Friday? She sure needed convincing. My father was getting milder in their interactions, if that was her greatest concern. Okay, the whole thing was totally devastating to him at first, but it shocked me too. He knew as well as I did that it should be forbidden; the kind of unwritten rule that had never needed to be aired, yet he and all the others he'd sought counsel from had all felt the burning urge in their hearts when they'd imprinted on their partners. They knew what it was like to feel a love so strong that everything else melted into insignificance. They knew how irresistible it was. They also knew the decision I'd be forced to make if they stood up to me, and I was grateful they didn't ask, because above all else, they knew that if made to choose between the Quileutes, my people, and Renesmee Cullen, I'd pick her every time.

And so, despite the gossip spreading through the Reservation like wildfire, it came to be accepted to those in the know that I, Jacob Black, leader and alpha of the Quileute wolf pack, had imprinted on a vampire.

Mr Mattherson perched on the side of his polished mahogany desk; the only piece of furniture in his office, and the only reminder that the company employed a cleaner.

"Son, please call me Bert."

"Uh, okay, thanks Bert." I smiled at him.

"Now you've got to make this building stand, Jacob. This will be our showpiece; land's tribute to the sea." He waved his hands in front of him attempting to project the sleek arms of the boat's hull that I'd have to draw up in steel. Another half an hour of strategizing and prep-talking and I was out of there and on my way, charged, to my desk.

I got a smile from Terry - one of our site manager's - on his way out. He was Quileute too and was one of the reasons I got the job in the first place. He nodded as he passed.

"Its all on your desk, Jake," he said, without stopping to chat. Before I'd even taken my seat I'd decided to make a start on the structural drawings first then give Carlie another call after school broke. I'd make sure Terry had his steel on order by the end of the week. Then I could rest easy over the weekend with Carlie.


	6. Chapter 6 - Benjamin

Chapter Six: Benjamin

I unearthed some old family photos. There was one of Mary Brandon, looking pretty young but dreadfully old fashioned, with a bleached white blouse tucked in at the waist and drawn together at the top with a sapphire broach. I might have been able to see the light catch the semi precious stone had the photo been kept in better condition, but even so it looked huge and valuable. Perhaps the Brandon's had money back in the day? I tucked the photo into my bag and headed out to the car.

It took the whole night to clear the southern states, then five tanks of gas and most of the next two days before I crossed mid-America and eventually entered the state of Washington where thick clouds and a flat tire welcomed me like bad eggs.

It was long enough to prepare some opening lines for Mary in the remote event that I actually found her. _'Hi Mary, I'm Benjamin. Don't be scared. I know you're a hundred and thirteen years old, but it's okay, I have visions too.'_ Hmph. I leaned over and grabbed the crumpled map from the foot-well on the passenger side. It had got me as far as Forks but now I was on my own. I started with a couple of gas stations and asked the attendants if they'd heard of a Mary Brandon. No such luck. The grainy photo I had didn't seem to jog their memories either.

I drove around aimlessly for a bit longer before I saw a shop with some promise.

"Er hi," I said as I walked into the camping store. A guy in his mid-twenties looked up at me from behind the counter. He drew a smile.

"Can I help?"

I nodded and approached. The shop was deceptively large and not as old fashioned as the front sign had suggested. What a shame. I thought that the 'since 1942' sign in the logo would mean that the owners would still be here, some old-timers who might have recognized her picture instantly. Instead I had a young guy who would most probably laugh at the grainy picture in my hands.

"This is a family business isn't it? Is your father in?" I asked. It sounded patronising, seeing as he was probably older than me.

"Out back. Do you know him?" He studied me for a moment.

"I was hoping to ask him a couple of questions. I'm trying to track down a long lost relative."

He didn't seem to care and turned away from me down an aisle of tents and past some oil filled lamps. He turned at the end and opened a set of double doors that led to a storeroom full of boxes.

"I'll just be a moment," he said and disappeared from sight. I weighed up the sleeping bags as I waited. They were all so thick, it must get really cold here at night. A few minutes passed and I was already starting to feel foolish. I'd come all this way and was just going to ask everyone I met about Mary. Tenacity was one of my strong points, but even so, I was pushing it.

"How can I be of service?" A thick-set man said as he walked through the double doors. This must be the father. He wasn't really as old as I'd hoped but I showed him the photo nonetheless.

"This is a long lost relative of mine. Mary Brandon. I'm trying to track her down. I believe she moved to Forks a while back, and I was hoping someone might of recognized her and point me in the right direction." I lost eye contact with him mid-way through my speech. Like the others before him, he wouldn't know her, it was written all over his face.

"This sure is old," he said, taking the photo into his hands. It was old and worn and now grubby from his dusty fingers. Why didn't I think to make a couple of copies? "You any idea how old she'd be now?"

If the creepy fella in the asylum was correct then not a day older than the photo. Without realizing it, I'd twisted the corners of my mouth. "It's kind of difficult to gauge. The photo's really poor quality, but not so old."

He didn't look convinced but turned to where his son loitered in the aisle. "Well I guess you'd know better than me, Mike. She looks half my age."

"Oh, no, I'd have thought she was still older than you," I said, quickly, reaching for the photo before he passed it on to the younger guy. "Sorry to have troubled you."

"No, I'll take a look," Mike said, enthusiastically. Before I'd had a chance to put the photograph away, he was by my side, peering in at Mary's face. Something pulled him in closer.

"What did you say her name was again?" He leaned in, squinting at it.

"Mary, Mary Brandon."

"I don't know any Mary, but this girl went to my school, only she's changed a bit. She's done herself up since this photo was taken. Must be better make up or something… hey is this fancy dress?"

I didn't answer.

He continued looking at her face. "And she's not called Mary Brandon either. Her name is Alice Cullen.

"I knew they were weird," he continued. "I bet they were hiding out here. Maybe they were on some kind of witness protection programme. That would explain why they kept to themselves you know, never let anyone in. Well apart from B—."

He looked back at the picture holding it right in front of his nose. "That must be why Dr Cullen adopted them…" He suddenly went quiet and looked up at me suspiciously. "Who did you say you were again?"

"Benjamin Brandon. A relation?" I paused, watching him weigh me up in a slightly unnerving way. He handed the photo back and stepped back a pace from me. "Do you know where she lives?" I pushed.

"Did live," he replied, though his voice was more guarded. "They're long gone."

"Who's they – are there others that were adopted?"

A bell at the front desk chimed. I looked up to see a couple of teenage boys walk in. Mike looked strained. "Sorry I can't be of any more help," he said, and started to make his way to the front of the store. "Hi fella's, can I help you today?" He said to them. I left his father and caught up with Mike.

"Can you give me an address?" I furthered.

He turned, slightly perplexed. "Dr and Mrs Cullen are good people. I'm sure they won't want unexpected visitors at their door."

"No, I won't bug them, I promise. But they might be able to help me? I've come all this way, and you've been such a help already…"

He studied me, the desperation leaking through my skin in beads of sweat.

"She's family. I just need to meet her," I added.

He looked unconvinced. "I don't know, man. If she'd wanted to meet you, wouldn't she have sought you out already?"

She wouldn't even know I existed.

"You know, if they're really in some witness protection program, then I shouldn't have even spoken," he continued.

I was about to respond but he was again distracted by the two kids who had walked in,

"Hey, do you sell camping stoves?" The kid said. It stole Mike's attention from me.

"Er, yep, I'll be right over."

Mike turned to me. "I'm sorry I can't help," he added and walked off.

I looked round to where his father had been standing but the space between the tents was now vacant. It was so much more infuriating to know that this Mike could help me but wouldn't. Reluctantly, I put the photo away and made for the door.

Great. No luck there either. I was resigning myself to a night in a motel with no leads whatsoever. I'd come all this way, on my own, for nothing.

I debated what I would say to my parents when I plucked up enough courage to pick up the phone to them. I'd fobbed them off with text messages for three days, but there was only so long until I would have to tell them the truth, and then I guessed they'd go nuts.

I passed a wall of photos to the right of the main door as I left. There were about twelve photos in total, all tacked to the wall. One was of this guy, Mike, smiling with braces on his teeth. It was framed in one of those brown cardboard mounts with gold colored edging. Beneath the photograph was some lettering. I took a moment to read it. 'Michael Newton' it said, and beneath it, 'Forks High School 2007'.

I rolled my Mary photo and my map up in my hands and made for the door. Forks High School here I come.


	7. Chapter 7 - Renesmee Carlie

Chapter Seven: Carlie

The route from school to the Cullen's place is four turns off the main drag in between Serocco and First Street. I was used to the traffic on the freeway on my way back from school: impatient drivers full of anger for a world they felt had let them down. Kids weaving lanes like they were at the gumball rally, and old-timers causing unnecessary tailbacks that they weren't even aware their appalling driving had created. I rarely noticed any cars in particular; just let them sweep around me like a dull hazy mist. But today, one caught my eye. It was the one that had been following me from the school gates.

The volume of cars thinned at the turning onto Trury Lane. Aside from our house, this route only led out to the national park, and there was not much demand for that in the latter hours of such an overcast day. I did a double turn and went in a loop. I thought I'd lost it for a while, and nearly brushed it off as my over anxious imagination but then I noticed it again. It was dark blue and it kept its distance from me.

I sped up for the turning into our driveway then as soon as my car disappeared from sight of the road, I killed the engine and listened.

Our driveway is so discreet it is almost invisible; mature, unkempt trees mask a long tunnel-like path that winds for half a mile or so before approaching the main house. From within the camouflage of the forest I waited in silence for the car to pass, but all I heard was Rosalie's voice, which resounded from the house. It was higher pitched than usual.

"Is no one listening to me?" She said, her voice clear but faint from the distance between us. "I really think we need to start making plans."

"I agree," Emmett's voice rung out, a deeper, throatier tone.

"You have to agree," Jasper said.

"What do Bella and Edward think?" Alice said.

"They're not here often enough to even warrant a vote," Rosalie snapped back. "Take your pick, Montana, Wyoming or British Columbia," she continued. "Personally, I vote in favor of Canada."

"I don't," Emmett said. "I still say the States."

"But we've done the States, haven't we Alice? Jasper? Esme? Carlisle? We've been everywhere. We've done it all a thousand times. Nothing is new anymore, nothings even in the slightest bit interesting and I'm sick of it and most of all I'm sick of it here. I hear what they say when I leave a store or drive past them in the street. Their suspicions are raised. We're officially 'weird' now."

"They've always thought we are weird," Alice added, quickly.

"Well, I can't stand it anymore," Rosalie said.

Over the clipped tone of her voice, I heard the roll of a motor as it passed the driveway. It did not turn in. I waited a moment more before putting the car back into drive and cruising ahead towards the house. It was nothing, and why would it be; who would want to follow me?

"And they think it's odd that we neither work nor seem to do anything," Emmett added, trying to add fuel to Rose's argument it seemed.

"And better they don't know what you do," Esme said.

"Enough of this nonsense Rosalie," Carlisle spoke up. "You know why we're not moving." His voice went particularly quiet. "We can't move... at least not yet. So you better find yourself a hobby, get a job or go on vacation if you're bored."

The driveway swung round to the left and the corner of the house came into view. They didn't say any more. I slowed, waiting for the garage doors to open then pulled into an empty spot and sprung up the stairs from the garage. They were all in the dining room around the big marble table.

"Well I think you should holiday in the Maldives, Rose," Carlisle said, in a different voice altogether. "It is truly beautiful and the snorkeling there is world-class."

"Hi guys," I chirped into the tense room.

Rosalie huffed and walked out forcing a smile at me as she went. "You win, the Maldives it is," she muttered.

"There you are, Carlie," Esme said, ignoring Rose. She stood up and came over to squeeze my shoulders. Her deep honey golden eyes glistened. Behind her Carlisle was already on his feet.

"It's time to go," Carlisle said, taking Esme's hand.

"Bye darling," Esme said, over her shoulder. She added 'theater', by way of explanation before being whisked out of the room into the darkness of the garage, her warm auburn hair glinting under the last of the hallway lights before it disappeared completely.

Jasper, Alice and Emmett stayed motionless at the table. Perhaps considering our next home, I wasn't sure. Of one thing I was certain, I wasn't to be consulted in any of their discussions. I never was. But it was what Carlisle had said that intrigued me the most, _'we can't move… at least not yet?_' What were we all staying here for?

"I don't know how they do it," Jasper said, after a moment. "Two hours in that house of torture with all those humans, it makes my throat hurt just thinking about it."

"You know you probably wouldn't be so bad in the theater after all this time," Alice said. She went quiet and when I looked over, they were both peering at me.

"Carlie, what's news?" She jumped up to where I stood in the threshold. "How was school?"

"Fine, I guess."

Jasper, motioned out towards the hall. I followed him into the sitting room where Rosalie had already taken a spot on the long sofa, still po-faced. Emmett joined her, sinking a kiss into her neck. Alice and Jasper took the couch nearest the door and I took the armchair in the far corner. Alice had been sitting for barely a second when she jumped to her feet again.

"I'll get it," she said.

Get wh—," Emmett started before the doorbell chimed.


	8. Chapter 8 - Benjamin

Chapter Eight: Benjamin

_So much for the kid in the store telling me I was too late and Mary Brandon had long gone_, I thought, as I took a step back from the door. In front of me was the house I'd followed her home to.

From the school bag hanging by a tall green plant in the hallway, and the tight collage of pictures that adorned the walls, the place was both inhabited and well-kept. A great big, modern hideout in the forest. It was iced like a cake in immaculate white render that reached out into the trees at an angle. Down the center was a generous mix of glass, wood and aluminum creating a kind of atrium foyer behind a pair of solid oak front doors. Perhaps it was the open-plan entrance that caused me to jump, for, at the time I'd pressed the bell, she must have already been behind the door.

"Hi," came the lightest voice I'd ever heard, before I'd even taken my finger off the buzzer. She was pixie small, white as a ghost and looked up at me with weird tawny colored eyes. I would have recommended some iron supplements for the anemia if we were better acquainted.

"Hi," I said. "I'm looking for Mary?" I thrust my hands into my pocket to stop them from shaking.

"There's no Mary here," she responded quickly, looking at me with intrigue. Of course. She wouldn't have used that name up here.

"No, I mean, she goes by Alice now," I said recalling the guy from the camping store. "Alice Cullen."

Her lips extended into a wry smile across her ashen face but she didn't automatically reply.

"And I just saw her drive past," I added, failing to mention I'd followed her home from the school. "So, I know she's here. I just want a quick word with her."

Her eyes widened and her expression shifted from amazement to confusion. She didn't speak but moved toward me faster than I anticipated causing me to jump back as she crossed the threshold. She pushed the side of my arm towards the steps.

"Look, I'm sorry to turn up unannounced," I added, but I'd already blown it. I tried to look past back into the doorway but she was already pulling the door shut. "I could really do with speaking to her. It'll only be quick."

The girl didn't answer but ushered me down the steps. I looked back at the house again for any sign of Mary then turned reluctantly.

"Why do you think you saw Alice just drive in?" She said. I paced to catch her up.

"It's a long story. Look, I'd much rather discuss this with her if you don't mind. I've come a long way."

"A long way to have a quick word with a complete stranger?" She mused, walking on. "Interesting."

I shifted uncomfortably and dragged my heels behind her like some lost puppy, but she already at least five paces ahead.

"I never said she was a complete stranger?"

"You didn't need to, Ben," she replied, turning back to me. "She's never been to the Southern states and you've never been to Forks before. It makes sense that you've never met her."

Wooah. "How do you know my name?"

She started to walk back, towards me, eyebrows arched and lips curved into a smirk. "I knew you were coming, Benjamin, but I couldn't work out why. Your reasoning was kind of blurry."

"You knew?" I said. "You see them too?" Was that why Dr Cullen adopted them all? Was this some sick kind of medical research?

Again, the thin smile broadened across her face. "Now's not the time," she said, turning towards the house. A shiny red convertible was pulling out of double garage doors. "Hi Rose," she added, as the car slowed by our side. It wasn't new nor was it old enough to be considered a classic, but it was shiny enough to see my distorted and dumbfounded reflection in the passenger door.. The driver was blond and flawlessly beautiful with thick dark eyebrows and a steel locked jaw. Sitting next to her was the girl with her thick auburn curls and impish smile. I couldn't take my eyes off her. The girl from my visions. Mary Brandon. There was no way her existence could be denied now, but this woman beside me had admitted that she saw visions too. My intrigue tore between the two of them. I looked down at Mary again as the driver, Rose, spoke.

"Get in, you know where we're going," Rose said. She glanced at me briefly with those same washed out eyes.

"Port Angeles?" The girl beside me said in her high voice.

"No, that place down in Montesano. Carlie needs an outfit for prom."

Who is Carlie? Perhaps they'd changed their names again? Maybe this was witness protection after all?

"Oh, Zatman's?" The girl beside me said in her high-pitched chirp. "My, you are pushing the boat out, Rose."

The blond looked impatient. "So are you coming?" Rose said. "They won't stay open all night for us."

"Yes, er, just one minute."

Mary Brandon slid into the back of the motor with effortless grace.

"I have twenty dollars in my pocket," the girl beside me said, reaching into her jeans. She gave me an odd expression. "I'm afraid that's all I can give to charity today," she continued, slipping the note into my palm. I didn't want the money; I needed to speak to her. I needed to know more but she didn't give me the chance. Instead she climbed into the car and sped away with the other two, leaving me for dust on the pathway.

Great. I'd got nowhere but more puzzles.

Disgruntled, I started the walk back to my car. I couldn't believe she had fobbed me off just like that. And why tell me about her premonitions if she was just going to lie about me to the others and keep me away from Mary Brandon? I got back to the car frustrated and banged my head against the steering wheel. It hurt more than I expected and prompted a dull ache in the back of my skull.

None of it made any sense.

I started up the engine. It was only when I put the stick in gear that the twenty dollar bill fell out of my palm and caught my eye. Scrawled across the note were eleven digits of a phone number and the words 'lets talk'.

I reached down into the passenger well for my cell phone and the area map and put my foot down in the direction of Montesano.

Another hundred miles in the car, on yet another freeway. This time I had a strong suspicion it was back from the way I'd just come.

Snow White, as I'd previously nicknamed her, was prettier in real life. Her face in the car was so soft, it seemed hard to imagine the pained expression when she awoke from her nightmares. It reminded me of the cold shiver that ran the length of my spine when I'd seen that monster come for me. In my dreams I'd seen my own death, and when I'd seen her eyes, cold and enraged, with a strange expression that bordered on violent, it made me think, had Snow White foreseen her own death too?

The road was long enough for me to dwell on my forthcoming murder, although now I was sick of the scene. When I thought about it I tried to stay focused on the projection clock on the ceiling in my vision. 18th September 2014. Only thirteen weeks to go.

If I had been meant to find Mary Brandon or Alice Cullen as she now went by, then why? Was I was being sent these premonitions for a reason? Was I some kind of superhero who was supposed to use these visions to make things right? I hadn't with Jennifer Moroney. I'd let her die. Now was the true test; would I be cowardly enough to let him come for me?

I pulled over by the 'Welcome to Montesano' sign on the northern fringe of the town. That's when I called the girl with the high-pitched voice. I figured there was no point driving round any further, especially when my butt was numb and I was starting to feel knots form in the small of my back. I got out and stretched before pacing up and down the sidewalk feeling slightly stupid. I'd come all this way to find someone who was clinically insane and technically had died nearly a hundred years ago. Was I mad? If she was indeed this girl, and was therefore still alive, then I had every right to be scared. Instead I was stalking her.

I didn't wait for more than one ring before hanging up. Isn't that what one should do when trying to be discreet? As desperate as I was to meet Mary, if I had to go through this one to get there, then so be it. If nothing else, maybe she could shed some light on my visions as they were scaring the hell out of me.

She called ten minutes later and guided me in to pick her up amongst a bunch of warehouses. If she planned on shooting me herself, I guessed this lonely little estate would be the perfect place to hide the body.

To my surprise she got in my car before I'd offered and directed me to the nearest diner.

"I get the impression you don't want the others to know?" I said, as she climbed back out of the car in the parking lot of a small roadside cafe.

"Astute aren't you?" She said, heading straight inside the diner with more of a skip than a walk. She watched me order a black coffee and one of the pastries that really did look appetizing, then we sat by the window.

"You not going to eat anything?" I said.

She shook her head and crossed her arms. "Who are you Benjamin?" She said. Dead straight, not even a flinch in her eyes. "And why do you want to find Mary?"

"It's a long story."

"Try me."

"No, really. Look it's nice you're chatting to me. Three days in a car can get quite lonely, but I came here to speak with someone, and I don't understand why you don't want me to speak to her. Is there any reason in particular for this?"

She smiled then shrugged.

"Just trying to work out why you're here, that's all."

I leaned over the table slightly. It was enough to make her sit back against the padded back of the bench.

"Okay, forget about Mary. Tell me about the visions?" I said.

"Why, you have your own, surely you know how they work. You see something, then later it actually happens."

"Do they always come true?"

"You wouldn't be a very good psychic if they didn't."

"What about changing them? Can I change the future?"

She was silent for a moment, and then started to smile. "You're running away from something," she said, after some time.

I bit into my pastry. Its shiny glaze stuck to the roof of my mouth and I spat what I could out into a napkin and tried to rinse with my coffee. Yuk. Even my eyes were stinging. It had been a while since I'd had a decent nights sleep, and I was sick of being ridiculed. Yes of course I was running away from something, but if she thought I was about to confide in her then she had another thing coming.

"I'm just curious," she continued, "what makes you so certain that the girl you have visions of is Mary? Does she look anything like that photo you carry round?"

She knew about the photo and that I had visions of this girl. I pulled it out of my pocket. The corners were now curled from when I'd rolled it up before, and when I tried to flatten them some of the print distorted. Damn photo. I took a closer look at it and then back up at the high pitched girl. Now I saw what she was getting at. Same small nose. High cheekbones. Soft brown hair. Almond eyes.

"You're Mary aren't you?" I said, slowly.

This time her smile was broad. "Wondered how long it would take. Pleased to meet you, and the name is Alice now. Alice Cullen. Can I see that?"

She took the photo from my hand, not quick enough for me not to catch her hand as it brushed past me. Stone cold, just like the crazy old man had said.

"Gosh, I never would have believed it. I didn't look so bad back then did I?" She said, although she looked abundantly better now without her coiffed hair. "Classy. Can I keep this?"

I shrugged and just stared at her. What was she?

"How are you alive to tell me all this?" I said.

"I'll answer your question," she started, "then you answer something for me."

"Okay."

I stared at her, reverently.

"I am not one hundred percent normal." She watched me carefully as she spoke. "But then, being one hundred and thirteen years old, you probably guessed that already." She smiled at me, a sweet smile that made her look angelic, although I hadn't forgotten about the old man. 'Very, very bad,' he'd said.

"Okay, now my turn, how did you find me?" She said. "And how did you get this photo?"

"I asked around."

"You asked around and you found Carlie Cullen?"

"I saw her coming out of school with Cullen on her ring binder, and because I'd seen her before, I added two and two together and got five. I knew a piece of the puzzle didn't fit. I just knew it, but because I recognized her from my visions, I thought it had to be her. It was all too coincidental."

"You see Carlie in your visions?"

"Yes, and it's partly because of that, and of course partly because of her ring binder that I followed her home."

She raised her eyebrows. "So she knows about you… she didn't mention it."

"Oh, no, she definitely didn't see me. I made sure I was way back."

"Okay." She shook her head. "So now tell me this," she said, her muscles now wound tight. "How is it possible that you have a ninety-year old photograph of me?"

I swallowed and took a sip of the drink, if only to remind myself of just how putrid it was.

"Because you're my Great, Great Aunt."


	9. Chapter 9 - Renesmee Carlie

Chapter Nine: Carlie

Rosalie and Alice took me to a warehouse in the middle of an industrial estate. I don't know why I let them talk me into this, seeing I had no intention of actually going to prom, but Alice wouldn't know that yet, and I wasn't ready to explain why.

The place was basically a trade-counter for eveningwear; triple the size of any store in Port Angeles, but without the trimmings. Instead of fancy displays, feature wallpaper or helpful attendants, there was an abundance of dusky pink commercial carpet than ran the length of the floor and part way up the walls. Above that were dresses 'for display purposes' which were mounted too high to reach anyway.

Alice threw the door open whilst I was twirling round in front of the mirror in dress number eighteen. The one.

"Rose, the truck drivers are really close to your car. It's blocking their service doors," Alice said. She gave Rosalie a strange look, and I wondered what it was she'd seen.

Rosalie nodded. "Okay, just buy a dress already, whilst I move the car." She exited swiftly, closely followed by Mr Zatman himself, a small, rounded man, with an affinity to Winston Churchill, and a soft spot for Rosalie.

"Oh Carlie, it's adorable," Alice squealed, breathing in the sight of me. The shimmering silver dress swirled in layers from the bow tied behind my neck. From there it wrapped around my body before flicking out to form a fish tail on the floor.

"That dress is made for you," Marilyn, the sales attendant added, showing more enthusiasm than I'd have thought possible for someone who has been so disinterested in us from the start. I imagined she was more excited that the dress was from their 'special' range.

Alice watched proudly as I turned a couple of times. "Maybe you could wear it for Rachel's wedding too?"

I frowned, and ran back behind the changing room curtain. Dress or no dress, I wasn't going. What if I attacked someone there? What if my nightmares came true?

"You're shy around him, aren't you?" She furthered, following me and peering in through a slit at the edge of the small enclosure, while I slipped off the dress. "You know, you never used to be. You would run to Jacob with even more excitement than your own parents. They were quite jealous."

"I was a kid," I said, pulling the T-shirt over my head.

After a few moments, I came out of the fitting room fully clothed, to the surprised face of Marilyn. Perhaps I should have taken slightly longer getting changed.

"Yep, this is the one," I said. Marilyn grinned widely deepening the crevices of her untidy face and went to package the dress.

"What is it Carlie?"

"What's what?" I flicked a curl from my face, and thrust my hands into my pockets.

"What's with you and Jacob?" She said. "You went puce when you thought he was asking you out yesterday. You run away from me at the mention of the 'big wedding'."

"It's nothing," I said, sighing.

Alice raised her eyebrows. "I have lived a little you know; I may be able to help?" She approached the counter. "Do you mind if I take a sweet?" She said, leaning over to take one from the bowl in front of us. I don't know why she felt that this charade was quite so necessary; plenty of humans were able to buy a dress without needing a sugarcoated ball of glass to sweeten their purchase. She began twisting the wrapper loudly in front of the unobservant sales woman. Marilyn didn't look up until the dress was fully packaged in a cocktail of pink paper tissue and a hardy box, which she slid into a matching pink bag. By then, Mr Zatman had returned from the car park and was around the corner where I could hear the hot drinks machine start to brew. Marilyn retreated behind the screen to speak with him.

"What?" I heard her say in a hushed tone. She returned moments later looking a little nervous.

"Mr Zatman says he can do this one for two thousand but, er... only if it's cash." She looked up at us expectantly then glanced back to where Mr Zatman was loitering around the corner.

Alice didn't even flinch. She pulled the wad from her jacket, like it was pocket change, although I knew she had disappeared to the bank especially for it, and handed it to the lady in already-counted, clean, crisp notes. "Thank Mr Zatman very much for his hospitality."

Marilyn's eyes bulged, as she looked through the pile of notes, uncertain whether to count them all in front of us or not. We didn't wait for her to make a decision and left the shop. Great trucks now occupied the space where Rosalie has originally parked, and a flurry of activity was underway unloading their contents.

"So, it's about Jacob?" Alice said, idling on the sidewalk. She glanced around for Rosalie's car but caught my faltering expression on hearing his name. "Oh, you're just like your mother, so easy to read."

It felt almost unnatural to discuss something like this with Alice but what harm could it do? My mother was never here. I lowered my voice as one of the truck drivers wandered past towards the showroom. He took longer than I expected to pass.

"How do I know that… Jacob and I, you know, end up together?" _If I dreamt about killing his family and friends. _

I perched on a low concrete post, one of twenty that formed an arc around the lot.

"You know we're not that dissimilar, you and I," she said. She paused twisting a sparkling ring around her finger.

"How so?" I couldn't think of one way we were similar, apart from our preferred choice of food. In fact I couldn't think of one way I was similar to any of them. They were flawless and not just in appearance. They exuded confidence and life experience and I couldn't help feeling strangely jealous of Alice for a moment.

"When I had the very first vision that I would fall in love with a strange vampire called Jasper, I was petrified. I thought, like you, that it would be impossible to fall in love with someone just like that. All I saw was his scarred face in my mind. It was his upset and destitution that caught me off guard. He was very… haunted, you know. He wasn't merely a wanderer, he was searching for something, yet he had no idea of what he wanted or where he would go—."

"Searching for you?" I said.

"Yes, perhaps… only he didn't know it fully. At first even the visions of his future were a blurry mess, and that took some deciphering, believe me.

"If you could go back in time and ask him what it was he wanted in that diner, I doubt he could have rationally identified it," she continued. "But at the same time, if I'd have analyzed it for long enough, I may never have sought him out. I just told myself that I should go to Philadelphia and meet him. At the very worst, I could have turned around at the door and Jazz would have been none the wiser… but what I'm trying to say is that if you don't try, you'll never know."

She started to wander along the sidewalk towards the main road. I followed alongside.

"And what did happen in the diner?" I said, swinging my new purchase back and forth in its bag.

"Oh, you know the story." A grin lit up her face. "He was the good southern gentleman, and yes, everything did change when I saw him for the very first time… but it didn't change because of love. It wasn't even about that back then. He needed a friend, and I was there for him. See, I just went with it and the rest, as they say, is history." She smiled at me with a warm effervescent glow.

"Then my confusion is different," I said. "I would be more than happy for things to carry on as they are. I love being around Jake and I think as a friend, he is the very best I could find. But I just can't see it developing when... "

"When what?"

I shrugged. "When we're so different." I tried to keep my feet in a perfectly straight line along the narrow curb of the sidewalk. Maybe it was about time to meet someone of my own kind?

"Does that mean we're not right together?" I asked.

"Nah, you can't keep scrutinizing it in that way, just enjoy the friendship like you always have done and the love will entwine itself around the two of you so tight that one day you'll notice that you simply can't bear to be apart."

Rosalie pulled up with the roof down. The weather wasn't really warm enough for that but Rosalie never paid much attention to the temperature. Once in, she put her foot down and we sped along the freeway with our hair in the wind, streaming out in ribbons of spun silk behind us.

My phone vibrated in my pocket as we passed signs for Neilton.

"Hi J."

"Hey Carlie, what's up, your text message sounded urgent, is everything okay?" He said.

I shifted in the back seat.

"Nah, everything's fine, well kind of fine. My school friend drilled me pretty hard about you today. I didn't know you met them and kind of put my foot in it a bit. I thought it was going to be a problem." Alice peered round at me. I tried to shoo her away.

"Why, what did they say?"

"They said we'd known each other a very long time, and you said you'd seen me grow up," I hissed down the phone.

"So?"

Rosalie pulled off the freeway, many turns too early. "Where are we going?" I said, to Rosalie.

"Sorry, out of gas, I'll only be quick."

"Where are you?" Jacob said.

"Just out with Alice and Rose. I'm meant to only have moved here last year when Carlisle and Esme adopted me. It makes it very awkward for me to have to keep lying to school friends, then lying some more when they catch me out."

"Point taken. Sorry, and I'll get Seth later for opening his big trap. I'll pop over, I just have some work to finish up at the office."

"Actually, we could be quite a while, we're in Aberdeen."

"Aberdeen, why all the way out there?"

"We went shopping."

"For a prom dress," Alice shrieked in the background. Rose laughed beside her. How I wished I hadn't agreed to this. I didn't even want to go to prom. Not with Jacob, not with anyone.

"Oh," I heard Jacob say down the phone. There was silence from his end and I narrowed my eyes at Alice.

"Listen I better go," I said, as Rosalie pulled up outside a service station.

"Yeah you're right, shopping is one strenuous task," he retorted.

"I'll see you later."

Prom was one overhyped, underrated night out. Rosalie had told me that much before school had even started, and now I had two consecutive years of it in junior and senior high, if, in fact we were still in Forks next year. The alternative, if Rosalie got her way, meant I would be going in some other town, at some other school, with even more strangers. Decayed rat blood seemed more alluring right now, even with all its side effects. I didn't want to go alone, taking a school guy seemed positively torturous, but taking Jake would be too difficult now, sparking an entourage of questions from my so-called school friends, that I wasn't ready to address.


	10. Chapter 10 - Jacob

Chapter Ten: Jacob

"What's up, Car?" I said. She had taken a full hour to get back from Aberdeen, on a shopping trip she'd not mentioned since. Come to think of it she hadn't mentioned Jaynie or Ruth either. Maybe that's what had her so distracted?

"Since when did I become 'Car'?" She said.

She wandered back over to me at the front of the truck, expressing the first signs of interest in me since I'd arrived. Its hood was propped up on long supports on either side of me and I was driving myself mad trying to work out why it wouldn't start. I knew enough to know that one of the wires was connected wrongly but I'd messed with the engine too many times to remember all the tweaks.

I'd test driven a three series coupe twice already, but even with my bonus, I couldn't quite bring myself to spend the money, not when this big old steam train here was working anyway. Maybe her breaking down again was a sign to trade her in; though with an intermittent engine and close to 200,000 miles on the clock, I would probably struggle to part-exchange her for a bag of sand.

"So now you prefer 'Nessie' after all?" I flicked a blackened rag over my shoulder without looking up.

"I dunno. I don't know which one I like more? Renesmee's a bit mixed up; I'm nothing like Esme and I've never even met my other grandma Renee, so being named after the two of them seems kind of odd."

"So stick with Carlie." And if I can't get her going this time, I'll bite the bullet and buy the BMW. Maybe I should discuss it with Carlie seeing as we're going to spend our lives together?

"Yeah but at the same time, 'Carlie' is basically a lie," she continued, behind me. "Everyone who knows me by it, thinks I'm someone that I'm not."

"See, that's what I said in the first place. You don't need to change anything about yourself to fit in but of course, no one listened to me." I shielded my hand over my eyes to look at her. Brown boots, skinny jeans and a loose top that floated to her hips. She smiled and her skin twinkled in the last rays of the summer sun, luminescent. "Is that what you think about when you go all quiet?" I said. Her mouth twisted and she looked like a younger, brunette version of Jodie Kidd, all chestnut curls, sultry lips and immaculate teeth.

"Nah, don't be silly." She shoved me slightly. I wasn't expecting it and fell back into one of the metal stays, which bent slightly; a reminder of her strength, which her soft beauty often eclipsed. It was a rare moment of contact but it was clearly the progression of our relationship from adolescent to adult.

"Oh so that's how you wanna play it," I teased, stifling a smile. I stood up until I shadowed almost her entire body, squaring up to her. She jumped back, the small of her waist twisting beneath the thin fabric of her top, and let out a shriek, shaking the grin from her face. I smirked and reverted my attentions back to the truck.

"So tell me something, Jacob Black, how long are we going to have to scrutinize this rusty old engine for?"

"Not much longer," I said, straining to keep my mind set on the truck/car debate when all I wanted to do was grab her to hear her girly shriek once more. There were only two ways it could go. Either she'd embrace it, or fling me off into the bushes. Now that would be interesting.

"Hurry up, J, I'm losing patience."

No, I must ignore her if I'm to get this engine purring again, _if _I really want to get the engine going again? Maybe I should scrap it now? Carlie would be impressed with a shiny new motor, after all that is what she's used to here with the Cullens. Or maybe I should give this old beast one last chance to perform? So, do I cut the yellow or the blue? It was much the same as my decision with Carlie. _Jacob Black, stop procrastinating, just pick one and do it._

There was a sharp chime as metal brushed against metal, followed by a cracking sound between my fingers as the nuts crunched tightly in place. "Not much longer at all," I said, straightening up. My moment of truth. "Crank her up."

She twisted the big, old key in the ignition. It wasn't the healthiest noise but after an unsteady choke, the engine kicked in and started to growl. My gut reaction was indeed correct.

The next morning, the sun rose in a sky the color of weak tea. For some unknown reason I was on early morning patrol with Leah again; something I tried not to do, and now it was twice in a week. Being the only female werewolf, she had a tendency to think about things a little differently, and as a member of our pack, it meant we all had to hear about it whether we liked to or not through our 'pack telepathy'. Her thoughts no longer centered around her ex-boyfriend, Sam, which was just as well as for a while it was pretty embarrassing with him being in our pack and all. Now she'd turned her attentions to my sister's wedding; as if I didn't hear enough about it at dad's place.

'_Is she really gonna be your date?'_ Leah thought. She was sniffing at the ground beneath a patch of shrubberies and didn't even look up at me.

'_Do you really have to ask the question?'_ I thought, a little disgusted at her attitude. 'At least try and be understanding in front of me.'

'_Alright Jake, I didn't mean it like that. I was just wondering whether she's old enough you know.' _She disappeared from view, which was just as well. The terrain was steep and jagged and I didn't retaliate, nor follow her round the build up of rocks. I'd grown so accustomed to speaking to her in my mind, that her presence in the hills above La Push was only incidental.

'_Treat her age like dog years if that's the only way you'll understand it. She's grown at least twice as fast as a human. Besides, there is no age limit to accompany someone to a wedding.' _

'_I hear your thoughts Jacob Black; there ought to be an age limit.'_

I should have wrestled her to the ground for a comment like that - in wolf form, female courtesy didn't count for squat - but it was just her thoughts I was listening too. With the speed she could run, she could have been on the other side of the valley by now. I followed her scent around the corner, up to the peak of the cliff where I could see Forks in the distance.

There she was. Still. Watching me carefully. _'You know you're going to have to show her the plans you drew up for your dream home at some point,' _she added. I'd started to design the house nearly five years ago. The plans were my own personal feat of style and engineering; something I held very close to my heart.

'_What's it to you?'_

'_Not being funny but does she know anything about the future you have planned for her?'_

Then, when our eyes met she snorted and bounded off down the other side of the cliff. I leapt off the rock in pursuit.

'_Butt out, Leah,'_ I said, upping my pace to catch her.

By this point I'd lost sight of her. She'd had it in her head all morning that we should be more vigilant about the mountains. In my experience the bloodsuckers rarely came in that way; not many people to eat up there, but even so, we could never be too careful. And so I ran down the small valley and then up toward Gunderson Mountain Summit.


	11. Chapter 11 - Benjamin

Chapter Eleven: Benjamin

"Hi nephew," Alice said, beaming as she entered my motel room. She was certainly the chirpiest person in the place, aside from the guy that served the pancakes in the adjoining diner, who seemed to be high all the time. "I'm sorry I had to rush off the other day," she continued. "Things are kind of hectic at home at the moment."

So far, I had no clue what hectic meant. She lived with Dr and Mrs Cullen in some big uber-trendy house with a bunch of girls who were probably all a hundred years old but looked like teenagers. Somehow it made for quite an eclectic mix.

"Tell me about the girl?" I said.

Alice seemed distracted by the smell in the room. Sure, it wasn't exactly fresh, but I hadn't really noticed it up till I saw the way she scrunched her nose.

"What girl?" She said, glancing around the place. Brown blanket, brown swirly carpet, wallpaper that looked like it had been applied in the dark ages. The parts that were not already peeling off the wall looked like they had been singed with a blow torch to give them a strange mottled paint effect. I felt her disapproval like she was my mother staring at yet another lousy school grade.

"Carlie? Oh it's a long story. There's another motel in town you know," she said. "I'm going to see if they've got rooms."

"It's ten dollars more and I want to know why you live with her? You're clearly not sisters."

"Ten dollars a day? A week? A month? You can't put a price on your health," she said. She pulled out some notes from her pocket. "Does this place have free calls?" She didn't wait for me to answer and picked up the phone on the dresser. "Oh good," she said, tapping the 'free calls' sticker that was peeling off the handset. "There you go, you've saved yourself ten cents in telephone usage already."

I put my hand across the buttons on the phone before she had a chance to tap in any numbers.

"Alice. I see her in my head. I want to know how I can see her?"

"You can see lots of people. It's just a coincidence, but while we're on the subject, do you see a guy in her future?"

"I've never seen her with anyone. She's always asleep or just waking up. Is she psychic too?"

She peered at me. "No. Why?"

"It's probably nothing. I see her having bad dreams. I just wondered whether she saw something bad happening in them." Like I did.

She shook her head and tapped a number on the phone.

Before I knew it I was following her fancy yellow Porsche across town. Whatever she was, she was certainly doing it in style. There was a red convertible that the other girl called Rose had driven and of course the house was spectacular. They didn't age, and up till now didn't seem menacing at all. Maybe that old man at the asylum was wrong about that?

"This is better," she said, ironing out a crease on the bedspread with her hand. The walls were now yellow and adorned with red flowers in diamond shapes that matched the pattern on the curtains.

"Alice, thank you for sorting this for me," I said, referring to the rather large deposit she'd given the concierge in the lobby. That would pay for at least a week's stay. I hoped I wouldn't need to be here that long. I'd never run away like this, and a huge part of me wanted to get straight back in my car and head back for some home cooked food and a scolding from my parents. But I was here for a reason, and the more I talked to Alice, the more I thought she might be able to help me.

"Can I ask you something?" I said.

She shook her head. "You don't want to know."

"Why not? You said you weren't a hundred percent normal." There was something in that statement that I really did want to know. How was it possible to defy time?

"It's not some magic potion," she said, "it's more like a curse."

"What's so bad about never getting old? I'd like to live forever." In fact I'd just like to live until I qualified.

She sat next to me on the bed. "It's kind of boring," she said, with a smirk. "Now what prompted you to find me?"

She stayed vehemently still and waited for me.

"Well, I saw something that came true," I said. She didn't flinch and waited for me to continue. "Someone was killed at the school that I work at."

"You're a teacher?" She said, neglecting the fact I'd just announced that someone was killed.

"Trainee."

She nodded.

"Anyway, a car hit her."

"Was it an accident?"

"I... I don't know. I think so."

"You foresaw it happening and are plagued by guilt for not acting on it sooner."

"No," I said. "Well yes, kind of. In truth I feel like I'm being punished for it, but I think it was just the trigger for what happened next."

She raised her eyebrows but didn't speak.

"At her funeral I saw another vision. My death. And given what had happened to Jennifer, I'm taking it seriously, so I talked to my father who, by the way doesn't believe in anything like this, but he did make a throw away comment about my great aunt Mary being in an asylum for talking nonsense like this, and that's what got me onto you."

She smiled as I told her about my trip to the asylum and how it brought me to Forks. I filled her in on our little family down in Biloxi. Apart from my Uncle Lionel, there was not much more to the family tree. Great Aunt Cynthia had died back in the sixties. The kids she'd left behind had married out and moved to California. Apart from the odd email to my parents, mostly gloating about their relative successes, we rarely heard from them.

"So you heard that I was psychic and you wanted to meet your kindred spirit?" She said.

"Yes," I said. "But it's more than that, Alice. I need your help."

Over the course of the evening I explained my vision to her exactly as I'd seen it that time at Jennifer Moroney's funeral. I was convinced the two events were connected; I was to be punished for letting her down.

Alice was a good listener, which was a first. If only my parents had been so understanding.

"You must be petrified," she said once I'd finished. "And all this time you've been walking around with this burden on your shoulders?"

I nodded. "I've been sent this vision for a reason," I said. "Now I need to do something about it, but I have no clue what or how."

I leafed through a take out menu that I'd found in the top drawer of the dressing table. "Can you not tap into the vision too?" I looked up at Alice. "Maybe you'll notice something that I've missed."

"It doesn't work that way," she said. "You either see it or you don't. There are certain people I don't see, Carlie is one of them. No matter how hard I try, I still can't see her."

"Weird," I said. I stood up and walked over to the window. We were on the third floor. The view was overrated and I pulled the curtains shut.

"Do you ever see Carlie eating?" Alice said after a moment.

"Not yet, but I'll let you know when she has a good meal. You're not worried about anorexia or anything like that are you?"

"No, nothing of the sort."

The room had an alarm clock by the bed, which projected the time onto the ceiling in much the same way as mine did back home. All I saw when I looked at it was my impending death. I went over and pulled the wire from the socket, wrapped it round the clock, and put it in the top drawer alongside a brown leather bible. I didn't know hotels still offered them these days.

"The clock I saw in the vision—."

"Assuming it's correct," she cut in.

A fresh wave of panic flooded over me.

"And why wouldn't it be," Alice added, putting her hand on my shoulder. I didn't even know she was so close, and jumped slightly as I spun round to face her.

"That means I have sixty-one days and nine hours, before... you know... it all happens."

"Don't worry," she said. "We'll get to the bottom of it before then."

We met up twice over the next two days, sharing stories of our families. She let me in to a little family secret; a few of them had gifts. Wooh, if I thought mine was good. Edward, could read minds. Bella, could shield them all from attack, and Jasper, Alice's husband, could manipulate emotions. Pity I couldn't meet them to experience it.

"So you all found each other because of your abilities," I said, as we walked through the park that was nearest the motel. I was visualizing X-Men, and the stately home they all lived in.

"Not exactly. That's just one thing we have in common."

I studied her face for a long time, then looked back to the flower arrangement that marked out the word FORKS in bright pink flowery letters. She was holding something back. No matter how much I asked her, she wasn't prepared to tell me about the curse. 'You really don't want to know,' she'd said, and by the hundredth time, I was starting to believe her.

By the time it got to Friday, she wasn't as jumpy about coming to see me, which was good because, as my only friend in Forks, I would growing accustomed to her visits.

"I know you can't see Carlie," I said.

She smiled a little. "Yes."

"I see her having nightmares, quite often. Has she ever told you about them?"

She shook her head.

"I thought she was having premonitions at first. Something a whole lot scarier than mine."

We crossed onto a cycle path.

"Why do you think they were scary?" She said.

"Sometimes she wakes up and looks... kind of weird. Like a monster." I saw Alice's face contort slightly. "I get it, I don't want to know," I said and she smiled.

Maybe they were monsters, some kind of ghosts that really did die, but couldn't pass over to the other side? That would explain the age thing, and I guess it would also account for the gifts. Ghosts can do anything.

"I wish I could see her sometimes," Alice said, walking on. "Carlie is the youngest. She's had to grow up quick."

"What, only fifty years old?"

"Seven."

I stopped walking. "What? Seven. Years. Old. But she looks like a teenager. Put some make up on her, and I'll bet she could pass for twenty-one and buy herself a drink."

Alice walked on shaking her head.

"Don't tell me, you can't tell me that either."

"Like I said, you don't want to know."

"So why are you telling me all this?" I said. "You want to dangle the carrot and watch my curiosity get the better of me. Why have you kept me a secret from your family? We all have gifts. I'm really not that dissimilar from you."

Alice laughed, not the pixie high shrill I was used to, but a full bodied chuckle. When I looked across she was shaking her head.

"You're nothing like them," she said. "And believe me, that's a good thing. Now tell me what you see for Carlie?"

"Why?"

"Because I like to look out for her that's all. Like I said, she's vulnerable."

I scratched the front of my head. A leaf or something had blown into my hair and although I'd flicked it off ages ago, it felt like something was still there, and it unnerved me.

"I'd tell you if I ever saw anything bad," I said, and we walked on.


	12. Chapter 12 - Renesmee Carlie

Chapter Twelve: Carlie

On Friday, I wasted time searching through Carlisle's artifacts for the actual document. Instead I found a dossier of old black and white photographs of Carlisle with Caius, Marcus and Aro from his stint with the Volturi in Italy.

Photographs rich with opulent Italian architecture and period outfits; each vying for attention by their inordinate amount of detail. Carlisle fitted in so well. Ironic that we are no longer on speaking terms with the Volturi. Not since their arrival in Forks, to basically eliminate me. Child vampires were banned many centuries ago, mainly because children vampires were permanently stuck at such a young age that they could never apply discretion, or any level of understanding to the Volturi's vampire laws. They had thought I was such a child. In fact, my growth was so quick, I was sure it had probably stopped already.

At the time, Alice and Jasper had sought out another 'half-blood' like me, and brought him back to Forks to prove to the Volturi that we did actually exist. And once that little debacle was settled we cut off ties with them. No loss. But more importantly, and less satisfactorily, no Treaty presented itself.

"Rose?" I said, as she applied a fresh layer of beet-red lipstick. She was the only one home, and probably the best one to ask anyway.

She continued to paint the red gloss onto her lips without looking up. "Uh huh?"

"Have you ever seen the treaty?" I said. "I mean the actual words on the original paper."

This time her eyes flashed at me then back to the pocket sized mirror she held in her palm. "Yes, of course. Nice dress by the way. I was one of the signatories; me, Carlisle, Esme and..." she paused, smacking her lips together at her reflection. "...and Edward."

I knew that, but nodded regardless. "Yeah, but do you remember what it actually said; the small print?" I furthered.

"There's nothing to it really," she said, snapping the metal lid of the mirror shut. She glanced over to the spot where my car was parked up on the driveway. The others weren't around, I'd picked my moment well. "Don't growl on our land and we won't bite on yours. You know that Carlie." She looked up at me curiously.

"So the wolves can't defend outside the Res?" I said, considering prom.

"Nope, and we can't step foot across their border, onto Quileute lands."

So if I had already broken the treaty, then surely it wasn't worth the paper it was written on anyway? Only one flaw. I hadn't killed anyone. Yet.

A sly smile spread across her face. "You don't want to go to Sue Clearwater's for dinner do you?"

No, I most certainly did not; Billy, Rachel and Leah would all be there, pretending to ignore the fact that I was 'a Cullen', but my curiosity for the treaty far outweighed any two-faced dinner with the wolves. It was the exact wording that concerned me. I understood my punishment for breaching the treaty but would they seek revenge against my whole family?

Grandpa Charlie was early to collect me that evening, but then I hadn't factored in how long our journey to the Reservation would take, driving at the speed limit.

I never took lifts from Charlie, and I'd almost forgotten the musty smell of his car. He'd stopped smoking about fifteen years ago but the cigarettes had embedded their odor in his upholstery.

When we arrived at Sue's house, Jacob was already on the porch. He waited in the doorway as the sedan whirred to a stop, wearing dirty cut off jeans, latticed with soil and undergrowth that looked like they'd been dragged along by his rear paws at some point in the day. Aside from the cut-offs, Jacob was bare. Bare-chested and barefoot. His body rippled in smooth tight muscles that seemed to stretch from his ears to the tired edges of his jeans. He stood leaning against the door-frame, like the guy from the Calvin Klein ad.

"Oh, put something on, Jacob," Sue sighed from somewhere behind him. "You don't see my Seth prancing around with no top on."

Jacob didn't flinch. "That's because he's such a weed."

"Am not," came a slightly higher pitched male voice from inside the house.

Jacob came to the passenger door of the sedan with a T-shirt in hand and smile on his face.

"Hi Charlie. Hi Carlie," he said, ignoring Sue. He went in for the usual greeting, although this time was even more over the top, with him holding the back of my head as he planted a kiss on my forehead. Then he left me to shake Charlie's hand.

"You've grown again, Jacob," Charlie said, sizing him up and down. Jacob grinned broadly. I rolled my eyes and made my way over to the house.

We walked up the front steps between a short but neat garden. Sprigs of color erupted between the dense blocks of green, hedging the front of the open porch. As I ascended the steps, Jacob took off down the road behind me. Great. He always knew how to throw me in at the deep end.

Sue's shiny face beamed from the entrance-way. She was a small, slim woman with chintzy apron and an overflowing plastic bowl of potato chips in her hands; hard, emaciated pieces of potato, which had been virtually sweated to death.

"Uhyah sochid haheck teeyah?" She said.

"I'm fine thank you," I responded. Charlie's eyebrows shot up.

"Very good Carlie," she said, clearly impressed. Quillayute was a hard language to master and even Jacob didn't speak it fluently. "Leah and Seth are just in there, love," she said.

I nodded, spotting them in the small front room by the television. Charlie and Sue kissed by the entranceway and he followed her to the kitchen at the back of the house, with a bottle on champagne in his hands.

"Hi Carlie," Leah said, injecting an impressive amount of enthusiasm into her voice. She jumped to Seth's sofa to allow me to take the other. God forbid I should accidently touch them.

With Seth concentrating on a computer game, the conversation was sluggish. I established that Leah had been on a failed date set up by her mother. I can't imagine why! Even without the embarrassment and slight desperation of having Sue arrange the whole thing, I could have guessed it would not have gone well. Leah was a closed book in terms of men; she was hard and brash, which I blamed on spending so much time with the guys in the pack. Jacob brushed her off as bitter but it was still an open debate.

Then, seeing as we had nothing else in common, she brought up my school friends; an obvious play. As my only two 'so called' friends at school they had provided support in numbers where no real friendship could grow. I kept most of my 'extra curricular activities' from them, and in return rarely got invited to social arrangements out of school, so it was no wonder they'd headed up to La Push on Saturday night without me, and inadvertently met Jacob, Leah, Seth and the rest of the unruly bunch. That much I'd learnt from an awkward lunch with the two of them earlier today.

The front door swung open and Jacob re-appeared in a fresh outfit - a white shirt and jeans - with his sister, Rachel, and her fiancé Paul behind him. About time.

"Dad's not coming Sue," he hollered. "He's sorry, says he's got the flu or something."

"Don't shout Jake," Rachel said. "Go tell her."

"You go tell her," he replied, before smiling down at me.

Rachel looked about to protest then sighed and led Paul off in the direction of the kitchen.

"So what have I missed?" Jacob said, rubbing his hands together.

Seth recited the whole 'we met those girls on the beach' episode all over again, with a gentle nudge at Jaynie's flirting – nothing new – which I would have brushed away like a fly had it not been for Jacob's enormous grin from ear to ear.

"Hey," I swatted at him. He shrugged and knots formed in my pit of my stomach.

Dinner was a mostly pleasant affair, aside the food of course, which looked wholly unappetizing, although to her credit, Sue had been careful to put only the tiniest bit of food on my plate disguised by generous swathes of gravy. Charlie ate like it was his first and last meal rolled into one, and took no care in my pathetic portion or lack of knife and fork action. My parents worried that I should try to be more human in front of him but he wasn't looking to catch me out. It was like he preferred not to know that something was different about me.

"It's a shame Billy can't be here," Sue started, as the plates around me emptied. She leaned over Charlie to the bottle of champagne he'd brought and threw a dishcloth over the cork as she opened it. It burst with a pop and a fizz but didn't overflow all over the patterned carpet, like they seem to in films. "In his absence I just want to wish the happy couple all the best in the run up to your big day. We can't wait."

"Thank you," Paul said, and took a swig from his newly filled glass.

"Here here," Jacob added, smiling over to Rachel who was watching Sue pour hers into a plastic champagne flute with the price tag sticker still on the base. "I can't believe you're getting married big sis, only ten years after Rebecca."

She elbowed him in the ribs. "Alright, don't rub it in Jake."

"How is Rebecca anyway?" Sue asked.

"How should I know?" Jacob muttered into his paper napkin.

"She's fine, thanks," Rachel cut in. "By the way she's booked her flight, Jake."

"I can't believe it," he said. "With the girls?"

"Yeah, and Richard too."

"After all this time..." he said.

"Well it'll be lovely to see her again," Sue added.

I followed their conversation back and forth in slight confusion.

"Who's Rebecca?" I whispered to Jacob. The others all heard and looked at me strangely.

Jake shook a paper napkin - an after thought - and let it fall to his lap. "She's my sister," he said.

"My twin," Rachel added.

A twin. Jake had never mentioned her before.

"She lives in Hawaii with her husband and two daughters," he said. "But don't worry, you'll meet them all in a couple of weeks," he added. Great, at the wedding that I daren't attend.

Rachel and Sue slipped into another familiar bout of wedding chatter whilst everyone else lost themselves in their food. Since Jacob's mother's death Sue had adopted the maternal role and always looked out for Jacob and Rachel.

By dessert, we'd talked about Quileute salmon ceremonies, work - for those who had jobs, and wolves before the conversation swung back at me. It was Sue's fault; of all things to talk about, she brought up prom.

Have you thought about who you're going with Carlie?" Sue said, before popping a strawberry in her mouth. She looked up to catch Jacob's eye. Unsubtle.

"I've not really thought about it," I lied.

"You can't put poor Carlie on the spot like that," Leah said. "A lot of thought goes into picking a date for prom."

"You didn't have to think at all," Jacob replied sourly, observing me curiously from the corner of his eye.

"That's different, I had a boyfriend at the time," Leah said.

"Yeah, how is Sam?" Paul asked.

Leah's cheeks reddened and she stared into her plate of fruit.

"But as for Carlie—," Paul continued.

"I think I have to take someone from school," I said.

Jacob gulped, staying perfectly still.

After dinner, everyone started to migrate to the front room. Jake stretched a tanned, muscular arm out to me as I stood up from the table and from the corner of my eye I saw Rachel flinch as I took it. Then they all came up with simultaneous excuses to leave, which was just as well seeing as the front room wasn't nearly big enough for us all. I hadn't factored being left behind with Jacob, Charlie and Sue, stuck on some early re-runs of Two and a Half Men. Perhaps going on patrol with Leah and Seth would be more exciting.

Early on, Sue had pushed Jacob onto my sofa, which wasn't quite big enough for the two or us, more like an oversized armchair, and all the while, Jacob's warmth radiated from the slightly-too-small space next to me.

Was that what Jacob aspired to be like? I could imagine the house, and Billy wheeling himself up to a small reclaimed front door while Jake smiled with admiration at the workmanship he'd put into refurbishing it. The hand crafted shelves and new timbers Jacob would use. He would re-clad it, and when the weather was dry, paint it a light grey-blue that blended with the clouded sky. I could even imagine the fireplace, although it would just be for effect, neither of us felt the cold. Perhaps it would help to make everyone think we were normal after all. But we weren't. I definitely wasn't, and that was the part I couldn't envisage. I couldn't imagine myself here, on the Res; it seemed so alien. It would be like turning my back on my own kind. Whatever my kind truly was.

An uneventful hour passed by.

Perhaps naively I'd assumed that because Charlie had brought me, he would want to take me home. That was my first mistake of the night. He opened his second can of Heineken around the same time as the first credits started to run.

I rested my head on Jake's shoulder with the express intention of letting him know he'd have to drive me home soon, or at the very least pretend to, to get me out of Charlie's sight so I could run back. Instead, Jacob took my hand. He threaded his fingers through mine.

Instantly I put up my barrier to stop any thoughts traveling to him. It was almost an unconscious reaction from years of practice but there was a buzz between us nonetheless. I left my hand there, slightly uncomfortable in his grasp, yet not brave enough to move it.

I let my tired thoughts seep through my fingers into Jake's consciousness. I pictured the big white house, and my parent's expectant faces when I returned home. Feelings of fatigue crept into the scene, overwhelming him with the sense of exhaustion. I waited a few seconds as the scene played out, his palm in mine, but Jacob didn't respond.

I yawned loudly.

Still nothing.

So, I yanked my hand away, startling him as the vision interrupted. I tried not to do this to people generally; I got the impression that it wasn't a nice feeling.

"Let me take you home," Jacob said.

Finally.

I thanked Sue for dinner, waved at Charlie and made for the door, leaving them both snug on their tiny sofa. They were quite the interesting couple; my grandfather and Sue Clearwater. If they married then Leah and Bella would be sisters. The irony amused me.

"What's so funny," Jacob asked as we left.

"Oh nothing," I said, contemplating the contempt and bitterness between Leah and Bella that still ran strong. I pulled the door shut behind me and headed out into the crisp night air. The wind was up and I could taste the sea salt on my tongue.

"Tell me," he pushed.

"It's just the thought of Sue and Charlie together. The mother of a werewolf with the father of a vampire, I can't imagine two more opposite beings if you know what I mean."

Jacob went quiet; his anxious eyes darted from me to the floor. "Then what does that make us?" He muttered almost inaudibly.

Perhaps I should have quashed his fears right then and there and reassured him that it was just a joke. But I didn't. Instead I walked on, pretending not to hear him. On the outside it was easier to ignore his words but inside he'd hit a nerve. We were so very different.

We walked the short stretch to the house he shared with Jared to fetch his truck. He dragged his feet just a little, splaying the dirt underfoot and rattling the car keys in his hand. I was lighter, barely making a sound. The nightmares I'd been having seemed to distance us. I should be able to share these kind of things with him and yet I couldn't.

And what if I really did lose control in real life? Then there was the consequence of my actions. Would he hurt me?

"J?" I said.

"Yeah." He didn't turn as we walked, seeming still distracted from the comment before.

"Have you ever seen the Treaty?"

He frowned, locked in uncertainty. "The actual document?"

"Yeah," I said.

"It's at home."

"What? At your place?" My stomach turned over inside me. I'd spent so much time searching the house for it, and he'd had a copy all along. Why didn't I think of that?

"Well not my place. Dad's. Why?" He narrowed his eyes slightly at me. "You're family know the rules just as well as my kind. And as for the strays, well, good riddance." He chortled to himself. He really had no regard for my kind, whatever my kind truly was. "Why?" He pushed, again. "You wanna see it?"

I tried not to leap at his suggestion but I was already nodding.

We turned the corner and crossed the road changing direction for his dad's place two streets away. It was pitch black inside and we crept in quietly so not to wake Billy. Jake flicked on the antique lamp on the side table and went straight for an old cherry oak chest of drawers that separated the lounge area from the dining table. He was careful to lift the bottom drawer slightly before pulling it out which minimized the squeak as it dragged over its frame.

The drawer was stuffed full of old Quileute relics; leather pouches and odd shaped stones. The only thing I recognized was a small circular dreamcatcher which protruded from beneath a flurry of feathers; how ironic. If only it could steal away my nightmares in its web.

"Here it is," Jake said, pulling at a dusted flat box that was lodged at the back of the drawer. He threw a solitary glance of concern at me before removing the lid. I'd expected a scroll for some reason and was surprised to see it folded neatly in a box. It looked every bit its age, and Jacob unfolded it like it was his grandfather's body he was unwrapping from its coffin.

He took the parchment-thin paper into his old bedroom and spread it across his bed, smoothing the deep lines of the folds with delicacy. I scanned over it. Apart from the title and signatories there were three long, un-punctuated sentences, hand written in calligraphy.

I Ephraim Black leader of the Quileute Tribe hereby permit Carlisle Cullen and his associated family to inhabit Forks Washington on the express conditions that not one human shall be bitten and not one foot shall be stepped onto Quileute lands from this day forth and not one word shall be spoken of our abilities

In return I Ephraim Black and the members of my tribe shall not expose the cold ones for their true identity and shall not exercise our moral obligation to rid these lands of them and shall not encroach or defend on their territories where their obligations do indeed lie

It is with this express understanding alone that Carlisle Cullen et al shall be permitted to survive and should the cold ones fail to adhere to these terms they shall be penalized by annihilation forever ridding these lands of their threat

"Wow, we really are enemies," I said, scanning the faded text.

Jake bit his lip. "Don't you see Carlie, these words prove that even polar opposites can find some middle ground."

When I looked up there was a strange urgency in his eyes and he continued to study me long after I flicked my attentions back to the yellowed paper.

I don't know what I'd expected, but a hundred and fifty words of archaic english didn't give me the satisfaction nor the resolution that I craved. There were no conditions for breaching its terms, nor any small print for what would happen in extreme or unforeseen circumstances. It made me feel desperately uncomfortable and the more I digested the words, the more distanced I felt from Jacob. He wasn't just one of them, he was their Alpha, their leader. It was his duty to uphold his grandfather's sworn declaration.

"Are we done?" He said, after a while. He watched me nod and then started to fold the paper up again.

"Wait," I said.

He sighed and stood back throwing his hands up. I took the paper from the bed and looked down to the bottom of it again. It was signed by Ephraim Black, Levi Uley and Quil Ateara (Senior) on behalf of the Quileutes, and on the right were the names I'd expected; Carlisle, Edward, Rosalie and Esme, but there was one more, and this one was unfamiliar.

"Who's Sofia Alonzo? I said.

Beside me Jake shrugged. His indifference frustrated me.

"_You_ don't tell me you have another sister," I snapped. "_They _don't tell me I might have another family member. Is she even a vampire? And where the hell is she now?"

"Shuuhh," he said, gesturing to the adjacent room where his sick father was sleeping. "I don't know. I'll ask dad in the morning." He paused. "And I don't know why I never mentioned Bex. She's been gone a long time. There's nothing you don't know about me... honestly."

His dark hazelnut eyes brimmed with sincerity. I sighed and perched onto the end of the bed watching him fold up the treaty and carefully lay it back in its box.

"I'm tired," I said, as if that would explain my sudden outburst. I don't know what I was angry about but inside of me a turmoil had brewed, which set me on edge. There was probably a perfectly good explanation that Carlisle would fill me in on in the morning but it did nothing to make me feel left out from the Cullens, yet again.

"Let's get you home," he replied, turning in the direction of the door.

"J?"

He turned on his heel, looking down at me, expectantly.

"What would happen if it was _me_ who attacked someone?" I whispered.

He looked to the treaty in his hands then back to me.

"You know, maybe if it was an accident?" I looked up at him meekly, meeting his gaze, but my thoughts were already lost on the scene I'd imagined so many times in my head. Sixty wedding guests, fifteen or so wolves, forty-five unbearably delectable humans. It made me salivate at the very thought.

"Why, what have you done?" He said, the muscles in his face wound tight. He kneeled down in front of me till his eyes were level with mine; his face contorted into a grave expression.

"No, nothing." I shook his attention away but the weight of his stare still impressed upon me. My eyes would be perfectly honeydew, glistening a golden effervescence in the weak clouded glow of the lampshade. He placed the treaty box on the floor and continued to watch me.

"I have these dreams…" I continued. I knew I shouldn't tell him, my better judgement was screaming from inside at me to stop, but he nodded and it encouraged me to continue. "Well they're nightmares really, I panic, and then something bad happens… really bad."

A fatherly concern infiltrated his fraught expression.

"Nothing bad is going to happen, Carlie." His mouth twisted into a smile and his whole body seemed to loosen. "Not when I'm around."

"I know, I know, it's just…" I bit my lip. "What if I'm too quick for you?"

"Okay, now you're just talking nonsense, Carlie."

I tried to stand up, to shake off the whole embarrassing conversation but he stopped me and put both hands on my shoulders pushing me back onto the edge of his bed. "You're slow as hell, I always have to pull back just so you can keep up."

"Liar," I said, smiling, and he pulled me into his arms, surreptitiously sliding beside me on the bed. I rested my head on his chest and listened to his heart. It was a strangely intimate embrace for us.

"You have nothing to worry about," he said quietly into my ear. "I wouldn't be here if I wasn't meant to protect you."

I forced a smile and started to pull away but he stayed distinctly still and instead of loosening his grip, he brought his arms around my back tighter, pulling my body into his.

Then he leaned down drawing his lips to mine.


	13. Chapter 13 - Jacob

Chapter Thirteen: Jacob

To me Carlie was a not a girl anymore. Although it was only seven years since her birth, she'd grown quickly into the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen. Her soft skin and the way her hands slotted into mine; the huge unassuming eyes that looked to me for guidance and fortification. Every impulse oozing from her sought all the qualities I'd been building and training for my whole life. And it came down to one simple thing. Our love. She needn't be anxious that any of her bloodsucker genes would in any way taint her because imprintings were by design. I had no control over it. We had been chosen to be together and there was no doubt in my mind that whatever fear she admitted was just a way of showing me that she was ready for me to protect her, by showing me the chink in her armor she had invited me into her heart.

In hindsight, maybe I'd jumped in a bit carelessly. My timing was off. It had been so long since I'd dated anyone that I'd forgotten how to act. Girls are sensitive, caring and delicate and Carlie was an amplified version of all of those things, and that only made her more endearing. It seemed that I had been waiting for the right moment to kiss her forever, which is perhaps why I didn't see the punch before it hit me square in the nose.

Okay, so she's not just a normal girl.

Her fist sent me across the room and it hurt. I was too dumbfounded to react at first, and then too embarrassed to admit when it started to throb.

"I'm sorry," she said, from the bed. She bit her lip and looked down at me, but the expression wasn't exactly remorse. I got a sickening feeling that it was something far worse.


	14. Chapter 14 - Renesmee Carlie

Chapter Fourteen: Carlie

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," I said.

Had I been paying attention then I might have seen it coming but as it was, I was almost completely unaware that Jake was about to kiss me. It came out of no-where, much like my fist. I didn't mean to hit him. I guess my reflexes were quicker than I thought. I was just so taken aback by his advance that I couldn't help myself.

For a couple of seconds I sat completely shocked on his bed, then I jumped up awkwardly and started apologizing again. My hands, which had been folded up neatly by my sides now fumbled with my jacket and I averted my gaze to the carpet. I waited for Jake to say something but instead he just watched my reaction carefully in silence, which made me feel even worse.

"I'm gonna go." I reached for the door, and tried to make it out of the house as quickly as possible.

"Don't be silly, Nes— Carlie," he said, chasing to catch up, and then more forcefully, "I'm taking you." This time I didn't argue.

I power walked down the street ahead of him, debating whether to just make a run for it or not. I knew the embarrassment I felt now would just culminate if not addressed and so I jumped red-faced into his truck.

The engine started with a crackle. I had part-hoped it wouldn't start at all. Jacob turned the truck around on his street before pulling out onto Chemsy Avenue. Streetlights dotted the road, paving our exit onto the highway. He fiddled with the radio until he found a familiar tune that he started whistling to as he drove. He never whistled, yet somehow with every pause in the music the silence in the car seemed more pronounced.

It took only a few short turns before we were out of La Push and cruising towards the main road that led back to Forks. The thick web of houses were soon displaced by trees as we drove away from civilization and soon even the streetlights disappeared like beacons behind us. Several minutes went by before the next car passed.

"I'm sorry," Jake said finally, piercing our uncomfortable silence.

"No, I'm sorry," I responded, shifting on the seat.

"I didn't mean to act out of line." He looked over at me, before diverting his attention back to the road. "Are you okay?"

I thought of the kiss and then the punch. How disconcerting. How could he possibly have thought that me confessing my deepest, darkest fears to him would warrant a kiss?

"I'm fine," I responded. But I didn't feel fine. "I was just worried about… you know, doing something I can't control," I continued. "And then I did something I couldn't control." My mind began to swim with the scent from my dream. He'd no doubt think about the punch. A bump was already forming on his cheekbone. He healed quickly. With any luck it would be gone by morning before questions were raised.

"Are you thirsty?" He said.

I stared at the blank road ahead. "No." What a ridiculous suggestion.

"Well, what is it? Is it _me_?"

I cringed. My silence only seemed to perturb him but I didn't know what else to say. Was it him? I had just been caught off guard. Maybe it was just a bit too soon? Maybe like Alice said, the love would grow when I was least expecting it?

"You're distant Carlie," he pushed. "You've never been like this before? You've never been like this with me.. What's changed?" I watched the road keenly. "You can barely look me in the eye." He paused. "You know if something is wrong, you can talk to me. That's what I'm here for. I'm here for you; to look after you.. to be with you."

I studied my sneakers. One of the laces had started to fray and I brought my foot up to the edge of the chair to twist the end of it. I heard him sigh; the distraction seemed to irritate him. The thing was, if he hadn't started with the hand-holding and now the kissing then I wouldn't have become so uncomfortable around him. It was all a vicious circle.

"It was the kiss. I should never have tried to kiss you. And I should've known by the way you've been so cagey around me with this damn prom thing that you weren't ready. It's my own stupid fault." He looked over, desperation poured through the fine lines that had gathered across his forehead.

"It's not you," I said, carefully.

"Then what are you thinking?" He said, voice softened.

Against my better judgment, I pressed my finger to the back of his hand, which was resting on the gear stick. There was always a sharper tingle when I touched Jake and it gave him the chance to pull the car over to the side of the road to concentrate. Our hands radiated at such different temperatures; mine always rested on the cool side of average while Jacob's were abnormally hot.

The vision I portrayed took a few seconds to start registering in Jacob's mind. He waited patiently. First, I channeled the time when my mother had explained imprinting to me. This held feelings of happiness and elation, which I hoped Jacob would take as a compliment. I was sitting on my mom's knee, at age three or thereabouts, and I'd just asked her how we were related to Jacob.

"Uncle Jacob is very special, Nessie," she said in a soft, comforting voice. "You'll find out one day." She smiled and the pearly whites of her teeth dazzled me.

"But I want to know nooow," I whined looking up at her with wide innocent eyes. She melted in front of me, like I knew she would.

"Well..."

"Go on Bella, you can tell me," I said. Even at three years old I addressed her by her first name, and was as articulate as any adult, hidden behind the high-pitched voice of a child.

"Jacob is not one of us," she said, "I mean in the way that we like blood." I knew that. He actually ate the flesh of the animals we hunted - we could share the prey we caught; economical but rather sick all the same. Jacob forced a weak chuckle as it played out through his mind.

"No, I mean he's not family like we are." She thought for a moment before continuing. "Jacob is a bit like Prince Charming."

I beamed; this was the type of story I liked.

"And guess who his sleeping beauty is?" She said.

I looked at her incredulously before answering, "Meeeeeeee!" shrieking as I said it.

"Yes you are my Nessie, yes you are!" She exclaimed pulling me into a tight hug, before tickling me. I screeched with delight at her story.

After that I continued to send memories of our happy times while I was growing up. Still a child, I would sit on Jake's knee, and play hide and seek with him around the house. He smiled as he watched the memories dancing through his mind. It must be weird not to be in control of what you're thinking in the way I took over his thoughts, but he looked eager to see it all as I had seen it.

I then channeled more recent images; him, a wolf, me... a vampire. The corners of his eyes drooped slightly. I pulled the vision to a close and braced myself for his bruised-ego response. Like Alice had said, these things don't just develop overnight, and I was willing to let them evolve naturally. I hoped he'd see that too.

But the vision didn't stop.

Usually I would just pull away, physically severing the link but with these deep thoughts I liked to close them in my mind first before letting go. I found that this bridged the shock between the vision and reality for the recipient. But this time when I tried to dull my visions till they went blank, I was met with a resistance coupled with the strangest feeling running up my hand. The tingle where our fingers touched had started off feeling perfectly normal but now seemed somehow intrusive, like some kind of force was pulling at my arm keeping our connection open.

I tried again to let my mind blank out but strangely, fresh visions started appearing, and not ones of my choosing. They were of other guys. They were thoughts that I had discarded but that wasn't how they communicated now. Harley, James, Adam, Jackson - guys stored in my memories. Guys I had met, maybe attended school with, certainly not thought about in any great way. It showed how I'd contemplated whether they were attractive or not. Then the memory moved on. I detested all the guys from school, but all he saw was their faces and how I'd looked at them with animation. I would have replaced animation with thoughts of curiosity if I'd had any control over what Jacob was seeing but somehow I didn't. Was it possible that Jake was controlling what he saw?

Then Jake appeared in my vision. Naturally I had always looked up to him with the respect he had earned over the years; this was latent. But again the scene corrupted. From happiness, it showed the trepidation I had built up over his sister's wedding, which somehow seemed to look like revulsion. The embryonic longing that we would eventually come together was twisted into my hoping that our fates would be driven apart.

It's not true. I tried to object but my mouth wouldn't move.

Jacob's face was staunch as the pictures danced in front of him, not even a twitch. I tried to look away, tried to block him out. Nothing. All the hours I'd spent practicing channeling with my parents seem to evaporate and it seemed the more I tried to block him; the more the images seemed to come.

I thought back to a memory exercise that Alice had once explained and imagined my brain as a database, with long aisles of thoughts and memories all stored in their own safe drawers. In my mind I imagined drawers opening involuntarily. Perhaps this was what was going wrong; memories were escaping. Or worse, Jacob was manipulating them.

Confusion swept across his face as he watched the scenes unfold in his brain. He observed the unknowing I had felt, creeping between the two of us, pulling us apart.

My hand felt stuck in the same way that contact with raw electricity pulls you in even though you know you must let go.

Then the worst images came; pictures of me with other men and then, the other half-blood from the Amazon, Nahuel; a flash of his evocative native attire. They were merely thoughts that had crossed my mind at some point or another. But now they were much more vivid, they almost seemed real. He saw children that were perfectly human, living a normal life that was not torn between natural enemies. The expressions Jacob wore seemed to blur.

It wasn't until I felt the sharpest jolt that I realized I was free. Jacob snapped his hand away, wiping it on his jeans. The face he wore was sour, disgusted; a map of despair. I watched his reaction from my frozen position; his face looked like thunder, contorting in a way I hadn't seen. I pulled my arms in around me and stayed desperately still.

Jacob said nothing, but checked his mirrors and pulled away from the side of the road as if I wasn't there. What had he done? My emotions swirled like a tornado inside; confusion and anger colliding.

We drove in silence, choking in an atmosphere tarred like oil, so thick. No words were spoken until we turned into the overgrown driveway that wound through the trees to the Cullen household. I opened the passenger door before the car had come to a stop.

"I'm sorry," I muttered under my breath, desperate to flee.

He said nothing, looking the other way like he couldn't wait to get rid of me.

"It's not supposed to happen like this," I heard behind me as the tires spun on the gravel. I looked back to see his forlorn expression, eyes averted from me, and felt his heart fall apart in front of me. Had he really waited nearly seven years for the wrong person?

I ran around the outside of the big white Cullen house stirring up the undergrowth and the branches as I went.

I didn't stop until I was through the small hallway and well within the confines of my bedroom and I shut the door tight. Like a child, I jumped into bed, pulled the covers over me, and hid from the world. The tears that streamed down my face were hidden now and I let them cascade.

What had happened? All those things Jacob saw; were they true? Did I subconsciously belong to someone else? Or worse still, did I secretly long to be with someone else? I couldn't think of one person I would want to be with and half the figures in my visions were certainly not ones I recognized, merely figments of my imagination. I'm sure I would be happier to share eternity with my parents and the rest of the Cullens than anyone else. I prayed for it not to be true.

My mind whizzed with the thoughts that would be plaguing Jacob right now. What did imprinting feel like? Had anyone ever rebutted an imprinting? Was it even possible?

Maybe.

That is, if we're talking about a werewolf and a vampire.

Imprintings had always been between two of a kind, of his kind, and what kind did I have to compare myself to? There was no one; no lessons to learn, no predecessors to teach.

There were kids, human kids. What if my thoughts were true? What if I knew the future after all, and it was buried so deep inside of me that I just never saw it? Had the imprinting clouded my judgment all these years, replacing my natural instinct for love? I felt puzzled, strained, and drained, almost limp. Was I meant for another path in this life I lived? I stayed under the covers all night; eyes squeezed shut long before sleep came for me.


	15. Chapter 15 - Jacob

Chapter Fifteen: Jacob

The tires scraped and spun as I tore away from the Cullen's place. What did I care? If Edward was home then he'd have heard it all by now anyway, polluting his mind with information that he didn't deserve to hear. One thing he should know is how she'd played me along all these years like a puppet and I was the fool who'd fallen for it.

But it was so much more than that.

I didn't listen when my father had first raised his concerns. I was outright rude to Rachel and Paul who had felt the need to spell out exactly what danger I posed them all with my irrational 'vampire-loving' behavior. But no one doubted for a moment that the imprinting was in any way reversible let alone fallible.

I turned my headlights off and careered through the tunnel of foliage springing out onto the main road with as much speed as the stupid truck would give me. I didn't slow for the road works, which took the freeway down to a single lane, nor did I care when I flew through the red lights closer to home. They were nothing like the crossroads I faced inside, the pool of sorrow that was drowning my heart.

_How could she?_

I don't know how I'd done it but I'd somehow overridden the trip switch to her power. I'd done the unfathomable and exposed all those feelings she was keeping from me. How they hurt now and how I wished she'd take them back.

Two years ago in the middle of December, I came across a stray vampire deep in the woods of La Push. I was supposed to be running the perimeter with Quil but we'd seen nothing dangerous for several months, and I guess I'd grown complacent taking a wide berth of our usual route. Quil had gone south on his own for a while. So when I saw her, I did exactly the opposite of what I was meant to do. I didn't call it in. I didn't even phase to warn the others. She was only young with crystal white hair that flowed straight down her back and bounced in the fresh winter's breeze. She hardly looked like a threat.

I let her admire me as I approached; I knew she would see through the muscles with my scent, yet I advanced in human form with foolish confidence, almost sneering in the face of danger. I liked the look she gave me. She seemed strangely attracted to me. She cocked her head back and twisted her hair around her finger like a schoolgirl; the type who attended a convent school and wasn't used to getting attention from the opposite sex. It was innocent and it reeled me in. What did I expect the outcome to be? I'm not so sure, but her smile lit up the meadow, and for an instant I forgot what I was there to do. I pretended her sharp, cloying scent was like the Cullens', like somehow she was different and I wasn't afraid of it. I let my own benevolence and ignorance cloud my judgment.

She laughed as I approached. It was a sweet iridescent giggle that reminded me of Carlie's and rendered me momentarily speechless. And for an instant, I thought she was different.

Of course when she delivered the first blow it took me by such surprise that I struggled to phase on the fly. It knocked me several hundred yards across the baron meadows into a thicket of course bushes.

By the time I was on all fours, she was upon me like a leech, throwing punches like bullets. She was quick, nimble and calm like a seductress enticing her prey. And she nearly got the better of me. A newborn, I now know, which is all the more reason she caught me off guard. I should have seen it in her glowing red eyes.

I felt bones crack and splinter in my arms and legs with staggering ease. When she packed some punches into my rib cage, I thought from the searing pain that she had speared clean through my body. It was nearly enough to keep me down but I had more juice in me yet. I lay like a car wreck, pretending to be near dead and waited for her next advance. Then when she was within a foot of her final blow I thrust my claws into her torso and ripped at her with all my fury.

After that, even though I was limping badly, the battle was fair. She'd clearly had some fighting practice before but never with a wolf. And my sheer size and experience served me well.

By the time the others arrived, I was lying beside a burning bonfire. Despite the severity of my injuries, Seth and Jared mocked me all the way back to The Reservation about nearly being beaten by a girl. Yet all I could think about was how wrong my first instinct had been. It should have taught me something then; never trust a vampire.

I can still feel the seething pain she caused me like it happened yesterday - a constant reminder of my arrogance. But in spite of the broken bones, the bruised ego and the shooting pain, it was nothing like the stabbing feeling in the pit of my stomach when I saw those images from Carlie's mind. The images that rendered me speechless. The images that broke my heart.

I don't know how fast I was going but somewhere between Kennedy Street and Belvedere Avenue the blaring siren shot out of the silence. I didn't even see the police cruiser but the noise brought me back to reality, whirring around and around as I slowed to a stop. It was then in the seconds before the officer reached my window that I fully comprehended what had happened. Carlie had meant to push me away. She must have done. It was her only way of getting rid of me.

It was Charlie Swan who tapped on the window. He assessed my appearance with benevolence. I imagine I looked broken as he took one look at me and told me he'd escort me home, back from the way he'd just come. If only he knew. When I looked up at him, through glazed, absent eyes, even his face reminded me of Carlie. Her eyes, her dark curls; Charlie had been sent to deliver the last torment to my soul.


	16. Chapter 16 - Benjamin

Chapter Sixteen: Benjamin

I hadn't been back in my room long when it came to me. Carlie was running, racing through an unfamiliar forest. A hundred shades of green painted the wall of trees that surrounded her. They stretched high overhead; straight and tall, before canopying out like magnificent umbrellas. In the distance, beams of sunshine split through the leafy awning casting twinkling rainbows on the undergrowth. She slowed her pace and reached to touch the foliage. The leaves were dewy, bursting with moisture between her fingertips.

She was following a huge man. His speed was definitely a 'gift' although Carlie wasn't slow either. She stepped up her pace to catch him up. His skin glowed copper, with the weird glint of iridescent diamonds that projected all around him. Weird. But then Carlie ran into the light, and hers shone too, not golden, but a twinkling ivory.

She squinted at the pools of bright light up ahead. I don't know how I knew but she was struggling to identify the man. She could neither close the gap between them nor call out to him. Desperation exuded from her. She had to know who this elusive man was but no matter how close she got, his face was obscured from her. The more she tried to see it, the blurrier everything seemed. First a tree was in the way. Then it was the stark sunlight, which flared in front of her eyes. Again, he was obscured. She stretched out to him as they ran. If she could only reach his shoulder, she'd be able to relay how tired she was. Then he would slow down.

She tried to shout but no words came out. Overwhelming exhaustion pulled her back.

It was then that he turned, only slightly but it was enough to see the face.

"Nahuel," she whispered.

He remained expressionless, although his eyes were locked on hers. As soon as she acknowledged him, I felt the vision start to pull away. The rainforest began to swirl. Thousands of green leaves all blending into one whole ocean of color, like water draining.

I took a drag on a Marlboro Light. My father had always smoked the red ones and seeing as I was going to die anyway, I thought I might as well experience all that life had to offer along the way, even if it did taste of coal.

Alice saw me smoking from by the bar and made her way over. The laws of smoking inside buildings hadn't made their mark on this pub in Forks, nor had pub closing times, given it was nearly 2am and a voluptuous attendant with a toothy smile had just delivered me a beer.

"She's going on a trip," I said, as Alice approached. She inspected the choice of seats I'd pulled up to the table, and took the newer looking stool over the more comfortable looking armchair. Interesting choice. I would have opted for the latter, but then why offer both if I didn't want her to choose.

"Is that what you called me out for?" She said, glancing round the room then sitting down with her back to a couple of guys shooting pool in front of a plasma tv.

"Yes, I thought you'd want to know, seeing as I can see her and you can't. You told me you wanted to know if I saw anything bad."

"It's bad? A trip? Where?" She seemed more on edge since our meet up in the park earlier and took a moment to glance around the room.

"I don't know yet. It looks like a forest. Kind of indistinguishable you know. Do you not know all this?" I watched her shake her head. "I thought you'd be able to foresee us having this conversation."

"The conversation is about Carlie, and she clouds everything that she's connected to," she said. "So no, I didn't see it coming, but I should have done. The way she rushed past the house earlier tonight, I thought she was going to kill someone."

I nodded, wondering if Alice actually meant it literally. She was grinning so I guessed my imagination was getting carried away with itself again. I took a swig of the beer.

"You know I lived through the prohibition," she said, pointing to my glass. "Awful times, when people would literally kill over the stuff. I wouldn't mind but it's not even nice."

I disagreed with her on that note, and was quite enjoying the taste. Maybe next time, I'd go for something stronger like a Guinness or something, just because my condescending father was a couple thousand miles away and couldn't judge me.

"Alice. You know these mind exercises you've got me doing? I don't think they're working. I had to force it to see this vision of Carlie and I didn't get much information and I get nothing more when I try to go back through the vision of my.. death. It's been two weeks since I first saw it," I lowered my voice, "and I have absolutely no clue who he is, or how he knows where to find me."

"Maybe he has a gift too?"

"Alice, that worries me even more," I said. "What if this guy is following me around and I don't even know it yet."

There was some interest on her face, although it was sandwiched between her concern for Carlie and some kind of paranoia that she'd walked in here with.

She looked at my glass of beer then up at me. "Describe your vision to me again."

"Okay, so I'm at home. I go to the kitchen, make myself a sandwich - tomato, edam and red onion, then walk through the hallway to the lounge where I plan to eat it in front of the television. My parents aren't around, and the clock says 7.15pm.

"I go to close the door behind me. It must be hot or something, I only ever close that door if it's too hot. Then I open the french doors out onto the yard. But I don't get that far. I reach for the door, and that's when I see him. Completely still, waiting for me, behind the door. Like a scene out of Freddie Kruger. He smiles at me. This guy is the tallest guy I've ever seen, and he's there to kill me, and he's smiling."

Alice was frowning.

"He throws me across the room with his little finger." I held up my hand wiggling my fingers around in front of her for effect. "The guy has got the strength of superman or something. "

"Then what does he do? What exactly does he do?" She was leaning across the table, golden eyes locked on mine.

"He kills me, that's what, and there's not a damn thing I can do to stop it."

"You must see more," she said.

"I don't. The scene tilts like I'm on the floor, then fades to black. Geez, I re-live my own murder every single night. The guy just leaves me for dead."

"Are you sure he leaves?"

"Yes of course."

"Is there blood?"

"Tonnes of the stuff all over the floor. I see it in my mind." I started to tremble. She wasn't paying attention any more.

"Alice?"

"He's super strong, but he leaves the blood, and you're sure of that?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry, I don't know what we're dealing with here," she said quietly. "Sounds like a vendetta of some sort. A hit man? Have you annoyed anyone recently, and I mean seriously pissed them off?"

"No," I said, quickly.

She dropped her head to the swirly-carpeted floor, while I downed the rest of my beer. I had an insane urge to burp but held back.

"I can't deal with this," I said, rising to my feet. "I need to get some air." I knew I'd be thinking about it all night long now. I wasn't getting anywhere. "Maybe I should just head back to Biloxi after the weekend. The answers I'm looking for aren't here."

"No, don't go. We'll get to the bottom of it. We just need time. If I can somehow get the information from your vision, I will be able to help. I'm sure of it."

I sighed and shook my head. Maybe this was just my life's plan. Maybe I wasn't going to make it to my twenty-fifth birthday. Maybe I'd done what I was put on this earth to do?

"Anyway sorry to change the subject but on the phone you said something bad happens to Carlie - is this on this trip?" Alice probed.

"Yes."

"Where do they go? What happens?"

I squinted my eyes shut and tried to bring back the vision. "Okay the place is bright," I said. "Definitely a forest, and there's someone in tribal gear that doesn't leave much to the imagination. There could be a power station close by that's blown."

"Why do you say that?" She said.

"They've got this weird white aura. I'll bet they're radioactive. Oh and she says something but I don't know what it means."

"What?"

"She says 'Nahuel'."

When I opened my eyes she was reaching for her phone. "I have to call Edward."

"The mind reader? If this is happening tonight wouldn't he know this already?"

"Not if Carlie's asleep," she said, reaching for her phone.

Fair point. I took another sip of my beer.

She didn't tap in the numbers but held on to the phone tight and then she leaned in across the table. "Tell me Ben, what happens on this trip?"

"It's still unclear," I said, fumbling with the cigarette packet on the table. "After the first vision, I tried to go back in, like you told me, to see if I could get more, but that guy was gone. In fact everything was still and quiet. I don't see how it happens but I see her lying on the floor in the middle of a forest, bleeding. She doesn't get up."

Alice gasped.

"I can't give you much else. I think I should wait until the vision comes through all on its own. All this forcing is not helping. If anything, it's wearing me down. I find myself physically exhausted after those mind exercises."

She didn't seem to care about my mind exercises.

"If she's immortal or something like you then she'd take a moment to recover and then she'd just get up again right?"

She frowned. "No, she is not immortal and we need to be able to keep her safe, and sometimes that means safe from herself. She lives in a different world. It can give her false illusions of her own strength."

Whatever any of that meant? Why was Carlie so vulnerable when Alice didn't seem to be? Her phone started ringing, an old fashioned 'bring bring' on some kind of small black designer looking handset that my trainee teachers salary couldn't afford.

"I need to get back," she said, glancing at it. I saw 'Jasper' come up on the fascia.

"You're going because of Jasper?"

She looked at me sourly. "I'm going because of Carlie."

Yeah right.

"He's kind of tense at the moment," she said, before I'd even had the chance to push the subject.

"So tell him about me. Introduce us."

She shook her head. "It's a bad idea. It... it doesn't go down well. I need to get back."

"What about me?"

"We have time," she said, "we'll get to the bottom of it."

"What about Carlie?" I added.

"I'll take care of it."


	17. Chapter 17 - Renesmee Carlie

Chapter Seventeen: Carlie

I woke with a jump and a shiver that ran the length of my spine. This time no nightmare. Instead, I dreamed of my destiny and where I ought to go, and Forks played no part in it.

I leaned down to the low table beside my bed. There were three drawers mostly overstuffed with useless paraphernalia that at the time I'd felt was worth keeping. There was my acceptance letter from Forks High School that I'd kept as a souvenir. I'd not really understood the implications of school back then.

In the bottom drawer I found a blue biro and flowery wire-bound pad. I pulled them out and started to scribble a note for my parents. _Should I write a note for Jacob? No, that would take too long. It was only early, the sooner I depart the better for everyone._

Of course the others would try to stop me. There was only four weeks left of school until we broke for summer, and it wouldn't do to raise suspicions over an extended absence, but school was hardly as important as this. As for my parents, they probably hadn't made it back from Dartmouth after all. And if indeed they had, they would get my note. I pulled a credit card out of the same drawer, then threw a handful of clothes into a bag.

There were no sounds from my parent's room as I passed. I hesitated only briefly at the threshold to admire the great crack in the stone where the front door had ricocheted off the wall the previous night. I wished I'd paid attention when the Amazonian's had come to Forks nearly seven years ago. I knew _he_ was from Brazil but that was about it. _He_ didn't strike me as the type to even have a fixed abode. Still, I had to try. What did I have to stay here for? For Jacob? Who most probably would never speak to me again.

Outside, the river was still, as was the air and the knotted branches on the trees. Nothing moved. I didn't jump across the river but followed its meander at a crisp pace. I could do with my car but the garage would take me too close to the others, and that would stifle my escape.

That's when I saw Carlisle.

Beside him Esme and Jasper stood motionless at the base of a sturdy birch tree.

I froze.

They were studying documents in Esme's hands and comparing them with the tree. It seemed a bit early for some kind of horticultural exercise, but they didn't sleep so I guessed it didn't really make that much difference to them.

"Carlie," Carlisle said, spotting me almost immediately. Damn. There goes my escape plan. I tried to hide my rucksack. "Ah you're awake nice and early."

"You're not going over to the house?" Jasper said, looking at me strangely.

"Just taking a walk," I said. "What are you guys up to?"

If I hadn't been so on edge then I probably wouldn't have noticed the slight pause between them. "We're heading back," Esme said. "You coming?"

I couldn't decide whether I was just being paranoid or whether they knew, but I walked back with them, listening to their horticultural chatter, and all the while wondered where I could ditch my bag before anyone commented on it. Luckily no one did. It took five minutes, maybe more, and as we drew closer to the main house, I started to hear the voices of the others. The house was buzzing with activity.

"Mom! Dad!" I cried, abandoning my bag by the yukka tree in the lounge. I ran at them with perhaps more force than intended. It knocked Bella backwards a few paces before she steadied herself; arms wrapped around me. Finally, they had returned.

"Did you come back to the cottage last night?" I said.

"We didn't get in until the early hours of the morning and have just been catching up with the others," Bella said, gesturing towards the kitchen where the others stood; their dipped faces submerged in muted conversation.

I turned back towards her. "Did I miss any gossip?"

"Not really," she said. It was then that I noticed the backpacks at her feet. They rarely brought their bags home with them.

Edward cleared his throat. "I'm afraid so," he said.

'_You're going somewhere? Really?'_ I pouted for the benefit of my mother who couldn't follow my thoughts.

"But…" I started to protest.

"It's okay, Carlie," Edward said, "we're not leaving you—."

I frowned. _'What? Then why the bags?'_ I thought.

"We're coming with you," he said, with a reassuring smile, wrapping Bella under his arm. She was grinning too.

It took a minute to sink in.

'_You know about the Amazon? You know I want to find Nahuel?' _

He nodded, looking only slightly ashamed to have listened in on my thoughts.

"We knew you'd want to meet him one of these days," Bella said, looking up at Edward. "After all you two are the only ones with human mothers. Or at least I _was_ human when you were conceived." Her smile radiated at my fathers.

'_Ugh. Gross.'_

"I'd have thought you'd have your bags packed already," Edward said.

I looked down sheepishly. My mother pulled me under her arm and ran her fingers through my tangled hair. "We're always here for you Nes," she said. She turned to Edward, tapping a brown paper envelope in her hands, and excused herself not long after.

As she descended the front steps, Edward's cell phone started to buzz.

"Eight? Really? Yes, we need them all. We'll make our way over now."

He looked up at the others. "Rose and Emmett found them, Jazz. They were just where you said. I'm going to head over with Carlie now."

"Do you want me to come with and explain?" Jasper said.

"Yeah, and Alice too," Edward replied.

Jasper's expression sobered.

"Oh," Edward said. "Just us then."

We took the freeway into town and followed the southern fork road into an industrial district. It was not an area I was familiar with and I was surprised when we pulled off at a small timber clad building set back off the road. The sign at the front was emblazoned 'North Olympic Library Archive Center'.

"Who are we meeting here?" I asked.

Edward smiled. "Its not who but what."

I followed him through a dark entrance-way where we signed ourselves in at a small unmanned mahogany desk. There was a phone on the top but no computer or paperwork. The rest of the foyer was empty, bar a browning plant in the corner that was framed by two low curved seats. A stack of National Geographic magazines took the place of a low table, and by their crispness I guessed they'd never been opened.

Rosalie and Emmett's names were already scrawled at the top of the visitor's book; the only entries today.

"Ah, there you are." Rosalie appeared in the hallway. "This way," she beckoned. "I've got a room we can talk in." From the number of open doors we passed down the corridor she could have taken her pick of rooms, but as it turned out the one she'd chosen was the biggest and had the benefit of windows. She smiled at me and took my hand as I entered. "How are you feeling kiddo? All ready for your big expedition?"

The room was much brighter than the hallway. In the center was a large desk pieced together from several smaller ones, which had been arranged into a square. Colossal scrolls lay bound up across them like cigars. Emmett started to unravel them in a single fluid motion, stopping only to place weights on each of their frayed and curled corners. They were maps, eight in total and they smelt like they'd been drawn up thousands of years ago, the way I imagined the aroma of Egyptian parchment to be.

"Where's the Atlantic Forest?" I said, scanning the patterns before me.

"Brazil." It was Edward, with a studious look about his face.

"This is where we found Nahuel last time," Jasper said.

Incredible. So they were all in on it. How could they have known about my dream so quickly? _'So this is all down to you Dad?'_ I thought. I didn't need to look up to see his response.

Jasper watched me carefully.

"It's not completely straight forward," he said. "At one point we didn't think we would ever find him... but in the end it was the tamarin lions that gave him away. They're indigenous to a region called the Atlantic forest," Jasper continued, then turning to face Edward. "It's an endangered species, Edward. You can't feast on them while you're there."

Edward took a playful lunge at him. While Jasper dodged a swing, I hunched myself over the maps.

"I've never come across purple dots before?" I said. It brought Jasper back to the table, smirking at Edward behind him.

"They show areas infested with wandering spiders," Jasper said, sobering up from his mischievous jibes. "Stay well away from them, they're aggressive and highly venomous."

"A bit like you then," Edward said, much to the amusement of Rosalie and Emmett who chortled beside him. Emmett stood up and high-fived Edward.

"What can they do?" I said.

Edward and Jasper exchanged more serious glances. "In vampires we believe their venom neutralizes ours," Jasper said.

_Is that possible?_

"And in humans?" It was Rosalie this time, with a cautious disposition.

Jasper paused, exchanging a look with Edward. "Not good," he said, looking perplexed as his eyes fell upon me. I wasn't venomous and that unnerved me slightly. I had never heard the words 'not good' be vocalized quite so darkly.

"So, how do we find Nahuel?"

"Well, it's an eight hour drive from Sao Paulo's international airport into the heart of the mountains." Jasper drew his finger along the map depicting our route. His fingers floated from one map to the next. Rustic orange lines contoured the peaks and troughs of the uneven landscape. His hand walked across to the third map and down to the forth, which followed continuously beneath it. Hire a boat on the Parana River at the shack with the cross on its roof and let the river take you to Nahuel." His fingers scanned along the blue line of the river, which stemmed and crossed several of the maps not resting on any in particular.

"You're not being very specific." I said, trying to gauge just how big the stretch of water was.

Jasper looked up at me exasperated. "Alice guided us in last time."

"Yeah, where is she?" I said. It was unusual for Alice to be so elusive.

"Oh, she said she had a few errands to run this morning. She'll be here soon I'm sure," Jasper said, returning his attention back to the maps.

"All done," Alice said, opening the door.

"About time," Jasper muttered.

Alice raised her eyebrows, centering straight in on the map. "You'll know when you get near, trust me. There's not a marker exactly as much as a feeling you'll get when you're close. But watch out for this waterfall," she added. Her hands stretched out as far apart as they would go, "it's nearly two miles wide, imagine its roar."

I don't know what sounded worse; the spiders, the waterfall or the blind search for Nahuel.

"Don't worry Carlie, we'll find him," Edward whispered. He had an uncanny knack of announcing my anxiety to the whole family. Thanks. He responded by squeezing my shoulders. "And if we have time, maybe we can pay a long overdue visit to Zafrina and her sisters up in Peru. At least I think that's where they were heading when we saw them last."

They thought I was waiting from them in the car. I should have been, but I just wanted to take a final look at the maps. If those plotted colonies of spiders were anything to go by, I would do well to keep my distance.

The front door to the Archive Centre was locked when I tried to get back in, which was strange considering I'd just come from there, so I went around the back. There were three sets of windows depicting the various offices, and I guessed from the long corridor I'd walked down earlier, that the room we'd just been in was the far one on the corner. Now it was empty. Great. One of the others must have already put the maps back. I turned to head back to the car and that's when I heard their voices.

"Why can't you see anything now, Alice?" My father was saying.

"It just disappeared Edward, but I know what I saw in the rainforest. Are you really going to go through with this?"

"Yes," he said.

"Then you have to be on your guard."

"That goes without saying. Thank you Alice," he said. "You let me know if you see more."

"Of course I will."

I heard their steps down the corridor and made it round to the front of the building in time to see them let themselves out the main doors and lock them up again.


	18. Chapter 18 - Renesmee Carlie

Chapter Eighteen: Carlie

Two days and nearly seven thousand miles later, we skirted around the mountains of Brazil in a decrepit truck. It chugged heavily into the still night air hurdling the uneven surface with as much grace as an elephant on ice skates. Business Class travel had afforded me one night's sleep but I was finding it hard to settle within the confines of the vehicle.

As I floated in and out of a light slumber, I heard my parent's sporadic conversation punctuating the journey. My father was concerned about Alice. He had heard something in her thoughts that unsettled him yet he couldn't make sense of it. I hoped his anxiety was prevalent enough to cloud mine. As it was, not even the vast mountainous landscape could distract me from thinking of Jacob. I tried not to dwell on the kiss, not just because by now my father probably would be able to picture it as graphically as I could, but because it kept re-surfacing the waves of sorrow and confusion that battled in my mind. I checked and re-checked the text message that I'd sent Jake days ago.

'I'm sorry,' it had said.

No reply.

Every minute since I had sent the message seemed to tick slower than it had before, and the emptiness seemed to be growing. Three days was the longest we hadn't seen each other for, and certainly the greatest stretch without so much as a call but how could I ring him now? I toyed with the phone for some time before putting it back into my rucksack pocket. Then I fell asleep.

When I woke, the sun had risen above the distant mountains and beneath it a hazy mist stretched like a blanket over a watery expanse. I leaned forward, peering through the mud-splattered windscreen.

"There it is," I said, drawing my mother's attention from the frayed papers she held. Already the water was starting to evaporate under the heat of the fresh day's sun. Small florescent birds rested on the skin of the water with thick green and blue feathers. The road angled west as we approached the river, and we skirted the ambled shore. High above us a cover of clouds was assembling although I doubted it would rain for some time yet.

Every now and then my Jacob thoughts ran away with me again. I caught a concerned glance from my father but did my best to ignore it. _'I'll tell you when I'm ready,' _I thought, and he quickly turned his attentions to the crackling radio.

We drove until the sun was high overhead, beating down with some intensity through the patches of clouds. All the while I played with the phone in the palm of my hands. Should I make contact again? I'd put the ball in his court, yet he couldn't be bothered to return it. Maybe he didn't care as much as I'd hoped.

Edward pulled off the road at the first sign of habitation; a small wooden shack built straight out of the dirt. There were no signs to indicate ownership but he tried the front door anyway. Nothing. He disappeared around the back for a few moments before returning.

"We're on course," he said, and we pressed on with our journey.

Shortly after the first shack, we started to pass more and more, clustering as we drove into what appeared to be a small, remote town. Edward read out the names as he translated them, slowing at the one called shop, although to me it looked more like a home with some baskets of fruit and vegetables out front. A middle-aged woman stood outside by the door cradling a baby in a sling around her neck.

"Not far," he said, after exchanging a surge of Portuguese with her.

I expected some sort of sign directing us to the boats. If there was one, we didn't see it. We took the forth turning on the right out of the village. It was more of a trail than a road, which we proceeded to bump along clumsily.

After a few bends, the track blossomed out into a clearing punctuated by a wide wooden shack and a selection of primitive boats that bobbed in the river beside it. Thick ropes reigned them in against the current. Directly in front, a mass of dense shrubberies encroached on a sandy yard.

I put my phone away and focused in on a small leather-skinned man who was crouching beneath a yellow and white striped awning. Remnants of what looked like a boat engine lay scattered around him; small waxy pieces of metal tarred with oil. On seeing us the old man's expression sobered. He stayed perfectly still, and only after nearly a minute, when it became apparent we weren't lost or turning around, did he start to make his way over to the truck, pulling his legs forward so heavily like they were weighted with lead.

"Desculpe-me," Edward said, in the direction of the small man, "estamos olhando para alugar um barco?" Edward pointed to the boats, which stuck out from behind the building.

The russet skinned man looked from Edward to Bella and then to me, before shaking his head sternly. "Nao," he said, "nenhum barco aqui."

Edward frowned.

"Stay here," Edward said, climbing out of the truck. He pulled his sunshade out first, leaping beneath it in a smooth clean maneuver. The old man set back slightly as Edward approached, his speed and agility only too prevalent. I watched the two men take a walk as Edward spoke softly in his foreign tongue. Soon they disappeared behind the back of the hut.

"Mom, I don't think we're at the right place. Shouldn't we drive on?" Her face was serene, looking almost impassive.

"This is the place," she said. "Remember what Jasper told us to look for." Her eyes steered in the direction of the hut. It wasn't much of a roof but high up across the tiles, were the painted swaths of a cross.

"But you weren't even there," I said, recalling the library archive center. "Where did you go anyway?"

She smiled through dazzling white teeth. "How do you think you got such an up to date passport for a six year old girl?" She said.

When I looked back to the clearing, Edward was returning towards the car. His face remained expressionless, always so difficult to read.

'_Are we sorted?'_

The slight curve of his lips confirmed it. Thank goodness for that. Now it finally felt like were making some progress. Edward headed straight to the trunk for our bags while Bella played with a ridiculously overbearing hat.

"Put yours on too," she said, throwing a matching one over her shoulder. Yuk. I pulled it over my head, fluffing my hair out around my exposed neck. With our backpacks on, we trundled to the waterside like tourists, leaving the truck abandoned in the old man's yard.

A dull drumming started to circulate the air as the engine kicked in. It was an open-sided boat, fairly modest in size, with lengths of timber suspended precariously overhead between four vertical supports. I nestled into a triangular shaped bench, which formed the point of the vessel and settled myself in for the long voyage.

"He was suspicious of us, he doesn't think we will return the boat," Edward said, when we were far enough from the shore.

Bella threw off her hat. "Why would he think that?"

"I don't know. Jasper and Alice didn't mention it, so I'm sure it's nothing to worry about."

Images of the cross he bore on his shack sprung to mind.

"Devout," Edward added to my thoughts.

I leaned over pressing my fingers to his arm to convey a scene from a film I'd once seen. It was a tacky vampire film, showing priests brandishing small wooden crosses and cloves of garlic at vampires with oversized canine teeth. The cross was being used like a weapon, and the fake-vampires were seething in pain at the very sight of it.

Edward shook his head as my scene played out. "Nonsense," he laughed. "That guy probably thinks that's true too."

I laughed and shrunk back into my seat.

"What's going on?" Bella said, realizing we were communicating without her knowledge. I liked doing that. It felt like some kind of secret society that we formed.

"Oh, nothing, love." Edward moved to her side, putting a protective arm around her. "Carlie's been watching too many films."

We chugged along the river sinuously. Edward held one hand over the tiller, letting the current add speed to our underpowered engine.

An hour or so passed before anyone spoke. By then the river had broadened forming more of a flat wide lake.

"Do you think Alice has been acting strange?" Edward said. I'd hardly seen her to notice.

"Like what?" I said, leaning forward. "You've been talking about her a lot, is something going on?"

The lines on his forehead knotted slightly. "I'm not sure," he replied.

Bella sunk back into his chest, running her fingers along his other hand. "What's she been thinking, Edward?"

"I don't know, I think she's been avoiding me," he said. "It's like she's afraid to be near me, afraid I'll hear something." He chewed the words over for a moment. "I hear Jasper's thoughts turning over and over. He's worried about her. It was all he could think about the whole way up to the archive center."

He sighed. "Alice has been off on her own a lot, and he's picked up the same scent on her every time she returns, but when he asks her about it she goes all cagey on him. Each time the excuse is different and when he pushes her about it, she snaps and backs away. It's just not like Alice at all."

"Yeah, I thought her 'running errands' was odd," I said, recalling our meeting at the archive center when she walked in late. "It's not like we'd run out of milk or anything."

Edward forced a smile.

"Has Jazz said anything to anyone?" Bella asked.

"Not to me." I couldn't remember a time when Jasper had confided in anyone but Alice.

"This might be nothing," I said. Immediately I had both their attentions. "A guy came to the house the other day. Human for sure. She didn't let us answer the door and went outside to speak to him. When Rose and I drove past them on the driveway, I saw her give the guy some money. She told us he was collecting for charity, but then when we were down in Montesano, I thought I saw his car again outside Zatman's."

"What did he look like?" Edward asked.

"Small-frame, white skinned, short dark hair," I said, "he didn't look like he was collecting for charity. He looked at me funny, no, stared in fact. Rose even commented on it afterwards."

Edward sat forward, unsettling Bella from her position. "Would you recognize his scent again, if it was on her clothes?"

"Maybe, when we're back home. You really think she's been meeting up with this guy? I mean I only saw him once. And I can't be sure it was the same car, I don't remember seeing the plates."

"Show me," Edward said.

I leaned over and touched his palm, showing him first the time we saw him in Rosalie's car on the driveway.

"I've never seen him before," Edward said.

"This is his car." I sent a picture of the navy Toyota parked up beneath a shroud of trees at the head of our driveway. Then I skipped a couple of hours showing him my glance from Mr Zatman's store. They both bore matching rusted arches around the rear tires and a low hanging bumper. When I was done, I showed Bella the same snippets.

"This means nothing," she said, finally.

"You're right, maybe we're reading into it," Edward added, swinging his arm around Bella again.

They bantered about it some more, before moving their attentions to Nahuel and what they expected of him. Our meeting at the infamous stand-off was so brief that there was little for them to go off.

I curled into a ball and watched the roof creak above me under the gentle movement. It gave me even more time to picture Jacob's forlorn face, more haunting than even my nightmares. I imagined him speeding off from the house, maligning me to his pack, turning against me. I squirmed as I imagined how I would seem to the others. They would probably have advised him to ignore my texts, keep well away.

I took my phone from the rucksack and set about sending a new message. All the while my thoughts lingered on how he could possibly have extracted what he had done from my vision. I pressed the green button and watched as the phone beeped 'no signal' and asked me to try again. I jabbed at it six more times. Nothing.

I thrust it back into my bag and squeezed my eyes shut for what I imagined would be a long journey ahead. I didn't anticipate that anyone would notice our little boat on the river but I was wrong.

That's when they came for us.


	19. Chapter 19 - Benjamin

Chapter Nineteen: Benjamin

"Try again," Alice said. "You're not allowing yourself to visualize the whole thing."

"I've visualized the whole thing and it's scaring the hell out of me," I said. I was beginning to regret telling Alice about my forthcoming murder. Since that night in the motel, she'd had me doing all sorts of visualization exercises. It felt like she was testing me.

"So you can see Carlie, but you've never seen her best friend, Jacob."

"Not from your description of him," I said.

"That makes two of us," she said, sitting back in her chair. "I don't get it. They're invisible even to you."

We were in a Starbucks that partly opened out on the lobby area of the motel, but also had a facia fronting the road. I was facing the roadside entrance, watching the cars go past every now and then.

"Who's they?" I said.

"Jacob is part of an American Indian tribe, called the Quileutes."

"Never heard of them," I said, taking a bite into a croissant. This beat the pastry in that diner the other day.

Alice had her legs drawn up to her waist, with her arms pulling them in around her knees. Only someone as dainty as her could even get in that position looking graceful, without falling off the chair.

"So Carlie still went on the trip, despite what I said?"

"Her parents went with her. She'll be fine now."

I took another bite, then a gulp of fresh orange juice.

"Okay, you've had five minutes rest. I want you to re-visit the vision."

"Not again."

"This time I want a detailed description." She looked like a reporter poised to write a whole article on my findings. Only she had no pen or paper, so I guess half the detail would be forgotten about anyway.

I closed my eyes again, and re-focused on the face I saw when I closed the door.

"He's massive," I said.

"Already told me that."

I shifted on my seat. If anybody was watching us, I'd look like the biggest idiot, sitting with my eyes closed in the middle of a coffee shop.

"White."

"How white?" She said. I opened one eye and gave her a strange look. Surely white was white? "White like me?"

I toyed with the idea. "Yeah probably, from what I can tell. There's kind of a shadow behind the door. This proves that my father never did change the light bulb above the entranc—."

"Hair color? Facial features?"

"Brown. Kind of big. Wide jaw. Looks like a wrestler."

She sighed and I opened my eyes.

"Is there anything of use you can tell me?" She said. "What color are his eyes?"

"Nothing like yours," I said, re-focussing. "They look very dark. Oh wait, they have this weird reddish tinge. That bulb is so annoying. Maybe if I call home and get my parents to replace the socket, my vision will become a bit brighter?"

I opened my eyes, but she was already lurching forward, looking like she'd just been stabbed.

"What?" I said. "Was it something I said?"

"Red eyes?" She said, followed by, "then we have a problem."


	20. Chapter 20 - Carlie

Chapter Twenty: Carlie

I woke to the sound of sharp screams. The boat was stationary. Dusk had fallen around us like a heavy canvas shrouding my sleepy vision. It soon sharpened up. My parents were standing above me, jaws clenched, teeth bare, poised and ready for attack. Edward growled into the darkness. I tried to peek out over the rim of the boat where great droplets of rain splashed down on the water. Their heavy splatter was abetted by the shrill shrieks from around us.

"Don't move," my mother whispered sternly. Her eyes remained locked ahead, squinting into the jungle.

The silence was broken by another onslaught of war cries from the land beside us; a cacophony of shrill, high-pitched cries.

"It's no use," she whispered to Edward, "something's blocking my shield." How was that even possible? For the first time ever, my mother was scared.

The screams died down for a moment, then started up with the same hollering as before. Only this time louder.

I automatically thought of Jacob. It was an unconscious reaction, making our petty argument seem so trivial by comparison. If only he was here now. He didn't need a power or show fear at the sight of danger. I needed some of his strength.

No heartbeats. Whatever was making the noise wasn't alive.

Edward remained firm in his stance. His head tilted slightly towards them. "We mean you no harm," he called out. A few uncomfortable seconds passed. "We didn't know that these lands were occupied," Edward started again into the blackness, the caution still prevalent in his voice. "We are visitors here, in seek of a friend."

The loud shrieks had stopped but still there was no response. Edward sighed, his expression desperate.

"Who are you?" A deep, accented voice boomed out from the darkness.

A voice but no heartbeat.

"My name is Edward and this is my wife."

Silence.

"And who is the human?" The same voice boomed again. My heart seemed to explode with speed. Surely any vampire could distinguish me from a human?

"She is no human," Edward started. When he next spoke the words were slow and careful. "She is our daughter."

I heard gasps from the land, then whispering.

"Master will want to see this," the deep voice authorized.

They deliberated amongst themselves for several minutes while Bella stole a glance down at me with affection tingeing the fear in her eyes.

"Don't worry, my Nessie, I'll shield you."

Liar, and she was using my old name, which meant she wasn't thinking straight. Her hand reached out to Edward's but her eyes fled straight back in the direction of the voices. I stayed still, protected from sight behind the outer edge of the boat. I'd never come across hostile vampires before.

"Show the girl," the main voice boomed again.

"It's okay," Edward said, cautiously, gesturing his hands out towards me.

Slowly I uncurled from my hiding place until I was standing in between my parents on the boat. It rocked gently under my movement, seeming only to be resting on land at the front. As my eyes adjusted to the opaque rainforest, the outlines of several bodies started to materialize before me. Six more hung back quietly in the woods. Each one brandished a long thin pole edged with a razor-sharp spike, pointed in our direction.

The speaker of the group stood closest. Long black plaited hair fell past his shoulders revealing a bare chalky olive chest, like polluted snow. It was bizarre to see a vampire wearing nothing but a loincloth, entwined with twisted stems and toughened leather. His eyes locked momentarily with mine. They were flame red and angry.

He held his gaze, before continuing his visual sweep of my body. I shrunk behind my father.

My feelings of acute raw panic shot through his arm. He watched my thoughts as they played out before him. It was a fine art to conceal trepidation the way he did but it didn't last long. He leaned his head away from me as if listening to their minds. Then he opened his mouth to speak.

"We wish to meet your master," he said.

The leader raised his eyebrows considering the notion. He then spoke loudly to his warriors in a quick foreign tongue. It seemed garbled to me but the response was almost instant. They raised their spears and started with their shrill hollering again, stamping them to the ground as if enraged by my father's suggestion.

The leader raised a large hand in the air, silencing them.

"Apreende-las," he said.

Three muscle-bound, animal-hide clad vampires led the way, the rest behind us, barricading our escape. Maybe this was why the man at the shack didn't want to rent us his boat – did any of his boats come back in one piece?

They marched on in silence stamping their spears to the ground in time with their steps. Drumming to announce our arrival to the rest of their tribe, or pounding vibrations into the ground to scare others from trespassing?

Several hours passed before our journey showed signs of an end. But our pace was slow; they exercised extreme caution around us. Then, under the weak glow of the moon we saw the huge structure ahead. It rose from the ground like a tepee before arching round in a huge semi-circle.

The foliage fell away behind us as we approached the great abode. It must have spanned the width of a football pitch and the height of a small tower; tall and foreboding. The hostile vampires spread into a circle around us, holding us in their invisible cell while their leader vanished into the great tent. I looked straight-ahead, grasping both my parents' hands for support. I feared that if I looked into their menacing, excitable, and unduly ravenous eyes again, I would surely suffer an injury.

Minutes later, the one with the booming voice reappeared from the building, kicking the heavy cloth door out of his way. First I saw the gladiator sandals that wound from his ankles up his calves. Then I saw his face. He shot over to us in seconds, carefully protected outside his ring of henchmen. Up close he seemed twice as big, with a fierce and non-forgiving manner.

"My master will see you." His finger pointed straight at me. I sent a vision through to my parents. It was the signal they waited for and together we started to move in his direction, albeit cautiously.

"Not them," he bellowed. "You." His stare ripped into me.

No, that wasn't part of the deal. They _must _accompany me. Pangs of terror took hold, and my grip tightened around my parents hands. Was he taking me away to kill me? Was this their brutal plan?

"We all go or no one goes," Edward replied, keeping a calm undercurrent in his stern voice. Again, instigated by Edward, we all prepared to move forward in unison.

"You make no choices here," the cold empty voice roared back.

The vampires that encircled us raised their spears and took a step towards us closing the space between them.

"The girl," he said again.

"No," Edward replied, obstinately. Bella's grip tightened around my fingers. Then everything happened very quickly.

Edward growled. He shot his hand back, throwing me backwards into Bella. We collapsed onto the floor as Edward sprung towards their leader, teeth bared. Their leader launched high into the air. The next thing I felt were the cold hands of one of the hostiles dragging me backwards. Bella shrieked, and it caught Edward off guard. The leader punched him sending him shooting away from us towards the great tent.

A vampire pulled me to my feet. Within seconds there were two more on either side. One vampire took my arms and held them tight. The other two held their spears at my neck. I turned to see Bella in the same compromised situation. Her face taught with angst as they pulled at her arms.

Edward landed by the tepee where great ropes threaded the ground. Two vampires had hold of him within seconds.

"Edward," Bella whispered desperately. They exchanged a destitute, helpless glance. A torrent of vampires charged towards him, teeth sharp and dripping with venom. With their spears raised they started their shrill cacophony of hollering again. He couldn't even run.

"I love you," he mouthed back to her, before he turned to his perpetrators. He pulled his lips back over his teeth and braced himself.

"Wait," I shrieked.

The vampires faltered. The leader stepped forward, eyes locked with mine. They blazed ruby red.

"Stop. I'll go with you," I said, "…just don't hurt them."

A twisted smirk spread across his face.

"No," Bella said. "No, you can't." Her voice sounded broken.

The leader marched towards me.

"I can, mom. I have to," I whispered. I couldn't bear to turn to her, to see her pained expression, or to hear her last words to my father. The anguish I had caused them already was enough. I prayed they would at least be spared.

I stepped forward, free from the vampire's clutches, and ambled away from Bella hesitantly towards their leader: all eyes fixed on me. As I walked, I felt the combatants fall silently in line behind me, closing the circle that imprisoned my mother. I stole a final glance at Edward, who had even more vampires surrounding him._ 'I love you,'_ I thought, before my heartbroken gaze fell to the floor.

I concentrated on scrutinizing their leader's feet. It seemed like the only safe place to look. Dirt and soil decorated his legs, half camouflaging him from the world.

"You wear this," he said with a faint accent, holding up a blindfold to my face. His voice had softened ever so slightly around the edges. It was such a contrary combination, I wasn't sure what to make of it.

I was allowed to wrap my own blindfold around my eyes. It was a course fabric, more irritating to my skin that I anticipated from the look of it. Like the rag Rosalie would use to polish her car, only this one had dried rock hard, emaciated. I twisted it round the back of my head with enough tension in the material to make it look acceptable. It was rough but its hardened texture allowed me to see through uneven slits at the bottom.

Before I knew what was happening he scooped me up into his arms. All my attentions went to stop the immense tingling from my hands at the touch of his skin. It was far sharper than I would have anticipated, almost sparking at contact. He faltered only a millisecond, then, suddenly he was running. Racing. All the muscles in my body had to exert just to stop myself from bouncing up and down in his arms. From the slit at the bottom of the blindfold I saw the black and white foliage illuminated by the moonlight as we sped over it. Where was he taking me? And what would happen to my parents? How I wished they were with me now.

We bounded for ten minutes or so in silence. He didn't breathe nor slow his pace. The jungle noises were the only consistent sounds to latch on to. Then I heard the water. It was a low thundering tremor in the distance, growling as the water pounded bare rocks.

Hardly a minute had gone by before I could feel the hazy spray. Mere seconds passed, and my clothes stuck to me like glue; dripping wet. A waterfall? As the spray thickened around me, it felt like the roaring water would consume me. His knees bent deeper down into the undergrowth, until the twigs and the ferns brushed against my legs. Then he sprung us high into the air. The sound of the water below, surging over the precipice was so close, it was overbearing. I could only imagine we were directly overhead. How I wished to be back at my river, back in my cozy cottage. How stupid I had been. A dream had told me to come here, to this inexorable danger, when really I had just wanted to run away from Jake and the anguish I had caused. How I longed to be back home.

I didn't see it coming, and nearly screamed out loud; first my legs, then the rest of my body ploughed straight into the waterfall. It drenched me and choked me all at the same time, forcing the blindfold from my eyes. The great rush of water pushed me back, deeper into the leader's arms; the arms that held me captive.

He didn't flinch.

I spluttered as I digested some of the water, my face turned into the leader's chest. It was piercingly cold and not at all soothing on my throat. Is this how they intended to kill me? Did he know I wouldn't be able to breathe under water?

To my surprise we careered further into the cascade and as quickly as we hit the gushing water we came out on the other side. His arms held fast, and his body landed onto something hard, absorbing the impact proficiently.

Then we were still.

"Stand up." It was the leader again, with his heavily accented voice. I realized he was trying to release me from his stronghold. He relaxed his arms and I unwound my body from the tense fetal position I had curled myself into and stretched my legs surreptitiously to find the floor. The floor found me - it was closer than I anticipated. Icy wet rock.

He untied the blindfold - which hung limply around my neck - with more care than I would have given him credit for. As my eyes re-adjusted to the darkness, I glimpsed at the stone walls that encased us. It was a cavity, a cave of some sort, hidden behind a wall of gushing water. We were inside the waterfall.

"Cruz," a voice chimed behind me; curt but not aggressive. The leader looked up apprehensively. He bowed and gestured for me to follow. Not daring to look, I lowered my head. Now the tides had turned. From my intense hatred of this man back at the clearing, I now had a bigger fear to face - his master.

I imagined him to be colossal in size, strength and presence, embellished with animal hides dangling from each shoulder, heavy chunks of tribal jewelry around his neck and some kind of artistic markings adorning his body; a super-sized caricature of his warriors.

Cruz slipped into a torrent of Portuguese.

"Ser deslocado," the master rasped back. Cruz obeyed without question, turning on his heel and running with all his might into the wall of water that sealed our exit. White froth sprayed out as his body flew into it. Seconds later the sheeting cascade was blank; Cruz had gone.

I watched with the same isolation I was starting to become accustomed to. Now there was no one between their master and me: no parents, no warriors, and certainly no allies. My heart had been pounding at a rate of knots, and it was only while I stood there watching the water flow past the cave, that I heard it. I turned in slow motion, inquisitive to see where the other heartbeat was coming from.


	21. Chapter 21 - Jacob

Chapter Twenty-One: Jacob

"Jake, enough is enough already," Jared said, beating at the covers until they came away from my face and the sun hit my eyes. I scrunched into a ball and burrowed beneath them again until the blinding light was gone. "Stop wallowing, Ja-cob," he continued, over-pronouncing the syllables of my name, stirring the rage within me. "I mean it. Or else I'm gonna bring the whole team round here, and you know how sick they are of hearing about her. So she's not right for you. That was perfectly obvious. But seriously man, it's not even normal to be this upset."

"How would you know?" I snapped back. "Its an imprinting. No one's ever broken one before." I rolled over and pulled the cover over my head hiding the red rings that encircled my eyes.

"Alright well you asked for it. I'm gonna get them, and they're gonna pull your sorry butt out of this room once and for all."

"Great, you do that, Jared. And while you're at it, close the blinds on you're way out."

He snorted and let the door slam clumsily behind him. I waited a few moments until I heard the front door swing shut before pulling at the blinds and resuming my hermit position beneath the covers.

I'd never found it so hard to sleep.

If the imprinting had broken then why did my heart yearn for her so. I didn't feel disconnected; severed maybe, with a blunt knife, but there were thin strings that still stretched across from La Push to Carlie. To the girl I'd watched grow before my eyes, then melt away into a puddle of mud.

After twenty minutes of tossing and turning I reached for the one thing I'd tried my hardest to ignore; the phone. Her message still flashed at the top of my inbox. 'I'm sorry,' it read. It might as well have been a blank message. It didn't even begin to explain anything that had happened. Two words. So vague. So meaningless. Perhaps if she'd said she didn't feel that way and those visions were wrong then 'I'm sorry' might have held some meaning.

I traced the contours of the buttons. Was it even worthy of a reply? Hardly. I'd studied it for days now, and while I had no idea where to start, there were still things I needed to say. Carefully I pressed down on the call button and watched as her number registered on the screen. 'Nessie,' it read in big white letters.

"Hi, you've reached the voicemail of Carlie. I'm sorry but I'm not available at the moment but please leave your message after the beep." I waited for the beep and just studied the silent handset, well aware that it would be recording silence. Did it even ring? Had she dropped my call just like that?

I dialed her again. Four more times it went straight to answer, and all I could hear was the bright, chirpy pre-recorded message she'd made in the car with me last September. The first three times I waited right until the beep before hanging up. On the forth I cleared my throat.

"Carlie, it's me…" My voice still hoarse, thick with pain. "I don't know why you're not taking my calls, well I do know but I want to speak to you anyway, maybe meet up?" I paused, waiting for an answer that wouldn't come. "I think its all wrong. I don't know what happened but it's not right. Nothing about this feels right and I'm hoping you feel the same. So, if you do, please just call me. I can't stand the not knowing."

I pulled the phone from my ear and just stared at it, pathetically, as a lump formed in my throat. When I brought it back to my ear, an automated voice was already cutting me off, telling me my message had been sent.

For the first time in three days, I pulled myself out of bed, wandered into the kitchen and forced myself to down a coffee. I knew I'd have to wait for any kind of response but I didn't plan on waiting forever.


	22. Chapter 22 - Carlie

Chapter Twenty-Two: Carlie

I listened hard to the strong rhythmic beat then looked him in the eye. His hair was not braided like the others, nor was he emblazoned with piercings or henna tattoos or any other tribal markings of a man I would expect to lead an army; a man they called master. Between swaths of cloth that clad his body, his cinnamon skin was smooth like marble and immaculate from head to toe. The white glow of his skin was faint but the mortal heartbeat was distinct.

He was not how I remembered.

The half-human, half-vampire approached from the back of the cave. He stopped barely a foot away scrutinizing me through rich mahogany eyes. They were narrowed to thin slits; judging me, perhaps evaluating his new-found competition. Was he prepared to attack me? I rocked my weight onto slightly crouched legs, ready to spring. In the dull and obscured light I could just about make out delicate venom lines than ran across his bare chest. He was a fighter; I wouldn't stand a chance.

I waited, hands tensed while he looked me up and down. Then, and only after several moments, something in his gaze shifted. The lines on his forehead loosened. He came closer, preying upon my scent and my skin.

"Nahuel?" I said, my voice shaky.

He recoiled instantly, growling through his teeth. "How do you know my name?!" Not even a hint of recognition in his eyes. "Who sent you?"

"No one sent me. It is it me, Nahuel; Renesmee." Tears sprung to my eyes. "They shortened it to Nessie... you saved me." Despondency and exhaustion crept into my voice. "You came to Forks when we were being threatened by the Volturi. You must remember my parents, Bella and Edward."

His accusing stare turned wide and round and he didn't speak for almost ten seconds.

"You were the child?" He said.

I nodded meeting my eyes with his.

"It was some years ago," he added but he knew only too well how quickly a half-blood would grow. His guarded look began to soften at the edges and he relaxed his fraught stance.

This time tears escaped my eyes.

"You must tell them to release my parents. Those vampires attacked us; they're holding them captive."

He glared at me with an obstinate expression. _Did he not even care?_

"My parents could be hurt," I pleaded.

His glare remained staunch but he motioned towards the waterfall regardless.

I continued to whimper behind him, trying to calm myself. It distracted Nahuel who turned to study me as I wilted. I met his gaze through watery eyes, confused by his amazement.

"You can't cry?" I asked.

His face remained serious. Perhaps we were not quite well enough acquainted to discuss emotions. Then he turned to face the edge of the cave where the water gushed past him. He pushed his head into the ferocious current sending water flying into the cavern. How could he bear it? I shrunk back from the spray although I was already drenched. Then he let out a sort of shrill into the night air that sounded like a cat screeching, while the river continued to pummel down onto his broad shoulders. When he was done he pulled his head back, neither balking nor complaining.

"Zafrina will bring them," he said. The words were quiet but his voice was stern.

"Zafrina? THE Zafrina?" I asked, incredulously.

"Who else?" He grunted.

"I thought she was in Peru with her sisters. How will she know where to find them? How long will it take her to get here?"

Nahuel's empty eyes looked confounded. It was enough to silence my onslaught of questions but not enough to stop me from thinking them. Was Zafrina a part of this menacing stronghold in the forest - this aggressive army that had captured us?

Nahuel diverted his attentions to a baron and rusted mirror that hung on the far wall. He wandered over with less fluidly than I was used to. Fascinating. He admired his reflection while combing russet fingers through his long sodden hair.

I stayed on the floor and tried not to move for fear that the abundant misery that loomed all around would stick to me and never wash off. And so I waited in silence for my parents; mesmerized by the sheets of water that ran past with an ever-present droll.

"Why did you come here?" he said, breaking the stillness.

It was the very question I was asking myself over and over.

"I came to find you," I said, and as I spoke I felt the warmth rise in my cheeks. "I don't know anyone else like me," I added, quickly.

He wore a healthy mixture of intrigue and disgust at the notion. "If you dwell on what you are then you will never succeed in this world."

"But I want to learn about my kind. I think it's—."

"What kind?!" He spat, spinning round to face me. "We are mutants, a distorted figure of what we should be. We are too powerless to pose a threat and too mortal to be an asset." He took a breath, his face enraged. "You think the others give you the same respect that they bestow upon each other? Do you think they see you as an equal?"

He raised an eyebrow at me, forging lines across his forehead. My silence seemed to amuse him.

"I… I don't think I've seen any other vampires, since... you know, the Volturi came," I said. Carlisle and the others had visited Tanya's coven in Alaska but they hadn't taken me. Then there were the wanderers who occasionally trespassed on our territory but again, Edward or one of the others would search them out and turn them away. More often than not it was the wolves who got to them first anyway; Jake made sure of that.

"No loss," he said, still facing to the mirror. "The more you meet, the more flaws you'll find." He turned and started pacing the cave.

Hardly. Vampires were an example of seamless perfection. "But then all the more reason that you should want to meet someone like yourself?" I said, goading him along.

He grunted in response. Clearly my suggestion didn't merit an answer.

"So, why did you come to Forks all those years ago," I continued. "Why help others who look down on you?" I braced myself for a crass response but for the first time he voice was soft.

"When Alice said I could help, it was the first time in my life that anyone had ever needed something that I alone could give…" His voice petered off, eyes to the ground.

"You saved us all, even though you had nothing to gain."

"And nothing to lose," he added quickly, "or at least I thought I didn't..." He closed his eyes for a second.

A swooshing noise began to filter through the great waterfall. Both our attentions flashed to the liquid wall.

First it was the white spray that displaced the flow, then a sharp noise as the gushing river thrust into them. It was their heads I saw first. Bella's face was closed, eyes tight, bracing for impact. Edward was not far behind. I watched him pull through the water quicker, with such sharp automatic reactions as his feet met the floor.

A third body started to break through the water but I didn't wait to see who it was. I left Nahuel standing rigid by the mirror and ploughed into them. Their reactions were quick, with open arms, as I collapsed upon them. I pushed my head into my mother's shoulder trying not to cry. 'We're safe,' I thought, for the benefit of Edward's ears. From beside me, he nodded slightly, and cleared his throat to speak but it was Nahuel whose voice I heard.

"Welcome Bella and Edward, my guests," Nahuel said. It was not quite the schmaltzy reunion I'd imagined back in Forks, but certainly more charming than he had been with me.

They nodded back at him, talking in their surroundings with apprehension. Then I saw Zafrina. She was as beautiful as I remembered. Tall bare legs towered over me until they met her smooth toned torso. She was more ashen than Nahuel, over what should have been a deep bronzed complexion. A long black braid fell majestically down her back. The attire was simple, the same mixture of cowhide and jewelry that I had noticed on the others. She watched our reunion with fondness.

"It's quite something this lair of yours," Edward said, gesturing to the bare cave that encased us. _Liar. _It was devoid of all human possessions except some insipid objects by the far wall.

"I found it by accident," Nahuel replied. "It has proved to be the perfect hideaway."

"From whom?" It was Edward again.

"From those who seek me," Nahuel replied, shortly. How egotistical of him to assume he was so sought after. What did he have that others wanted so desperately? I took my mother's hand, conveying a vision that we should leave. This expedition was already an overwhelming failure.

Edward squinted at Nahuel; the kind of concentration I'd come to recognize when he was listening hard to someone's thoughts.

"A tracker?" Edward said, breaking the silence. I spun around to face him and caught Nahuel's shocked expression. Now I was intrigued. Who would track Nahuel? The trepidation spread across Nahuel's face. "You hid here from a tracker?" Edward continued. "And they never found you?"

Nahuel's face reddened. He brought his hands to his temples.

"Get out of my head!" He shrieked, flashing his canines. Then, without warning, he ran towards the waterfall and disappeared in an instant.

Speechless, we all looked to Zafrina.

"I apologize for Nahuel," she said, a worried expression contorted the soft lines of her face. "He doesn't like surprises." She went quiet. "Well I am pleased to see you anyway." She tried to smile but it looked forced. Then she threw her hands in the air and raised her eyebrows at Bella. "Men hey?"

I smirked and she turned her attentions to me. She was exactly the same as I remembered her as a baby, thick eyebrows, widely spaced almond eyes, full lips and twinkling red eyes.

"But let me take a look at you," she said, coming closer to me, and this time there was genuine excitement in her tone. "Haven't you grown into a beautiful young woman," she said. I blushed.

"Zafrina," Edward said. It sounded like a warning.

"Okay, okay, I was just seeing what her scent was like. Trust me," she said, turning back to me, "not appetizing in the slightest."

Beside me my father shook his head.

"Now, will you stay here for a bit?" Zafrina said. "I think I should go and find Nahuel. He's probably sulking after his little outburst," She turned back to me and whispered, "he doesn't get out much."

This time I laughed if only a bit.

She was gone maybe twenty minutes before I started getting restless. The cave had a damp, musty smell, which was nothing less than stagnant. I half expected the fresh air to be running out, but Nahuel replied upon air too, so I assumed there was another outlet in here other that the waterfall.

"What did you hear in Nahuel's thoughts?" Bella said, after a while.

My father frowned. "When he said the cave was a good hide out, I'm sure he was thinking about Demetri."

"Demetri from the Volturi?" I said. That was the only Demetri they'd ever mentioned. It made sense. If anyone was looking for Nahuel, then I imagined they would enlist the help of a tracker like Demetri.

"He really didn't want us to know about it, the way he ran off like that," Edward said.

"Yeah, strange wasn't it," Bella added. "I don't remember him being on edge back in Forks."

"He wasn't," Edward said. "Something's got him scared."

I woke to the dappled light of the sun. Through the waterfall it cast a spectacular rainbow flickering and dancing on the walls of the cavern. My first instinct was to reach for my rucksack – which of course was several hours away in the hull of a rickety boat on the river – so I could tell Jacob everything. The boat was probably long gone, along with my cell phone and any hope of contacting him. The thought brought a lump to my throat. Then I felt a hand take grip around my arm. I jumped up in surprise.

"I'm sorry," Nahuel said. "I..." He looked up and I followed his gaze to where Zafrina stood on the other side of the cavern. She widened her eyes at him. "I didn't mean to scare you," he continued, looking down. "Not yesterday,.. and not just now."

I nodded and looked around the cave. "Where are my parents?" I said, trying not to let alarm creep into my voice.

"They're waiting for us outside," Zafrina said. "We're going hunting." She raised her eyebrows at us.

"We?" I said.

"I will accompany you as far as Azalea Crest," Nahuel said, as if we should be honored by his presence, "then you're on your own."

Zafrina rolled her eyes and came over to get me. Together we approached the wall of water.

"Is there a knack for getting out of here?" I said. The water seemed much more menacing up close. Nahuel glanced at Zafrina with some kind of silent question. There was still an uneasiness that loomed in the air like an invisible veil hanging between us.

"I find it better to stand between this ridge here," she walked over to the spot, "and the rock that protrudes over there." She gesticulated the window of exit with huge palms. "You should aim straight ahead to minimize the force of the river, then, once outside, put all your weight to the right to ensure you make the embankment. "Try and leap as fast and as high into the water as you can," added Nahuel, expressing his first signs of hospitality, "as its weight will carry you downwards very fast."

"Lets all go together?" I suggested. That seemed a positive step to ensuring my safety. Zafrina took my right hand, and Nahuel the other. There was no spark to touch like there had been with Cruz, their hostile leader. After some procrastination, I took a deep breath.

Then we rushed at the water.

Although I had experienced it once before, the force that hit me momentarily knocked my bearings. My vision turned turquoise, dotted with pearly bubbles that seemed to hover in slow motion around me. It was distinctly calm. Silent. We floated feeling weightless for almost three quarters of a second, then, with the same speed in which it came, the blue evaporated and the pounding water was once again spluttering furiously beneath us like thunder.

We plummeted much faster than I had anticipated. I felt Zafrina's palm pull me in her direction, her body leaning to one side. In turn I pulled Nahuel's and we soared towards the embankment with perfect bearing, with barely a thud between us as our feet touched the ground.

"Are you okay?" Zafrina said.

I nodded, flicking the wet curls from my face. I looked back to the waterfall to admire my achievement and was hit by the enormity of it. It was impossible to see Nahuel's lair, even to the vampire eye.

"There you are," I heard from behind. I turned to see my parents hand in hand. They nodded at both Zafrina and Nahuel, and together we started ambling down along the river.

"Nahuel," Zafrina started.

He swallowed and turned to my parents.

"I'm sorry I ran off last night," he said. "I didn't know if I could trust you, but Zafrina assures me I can." He didn't sound entirely convinced.

"He's a little intimidating," Bella said, nudging Edward. "But I can assure you that we don't pose you a threat. Whatever Edward hears, he always keeps in confidence."

"Very well," Nahuel said. His eyes studied the ground as we walked. "I suppose you want to know about what you heard in my thoughts?"

"Only for our own safety," Edward said, "do we have anything to be worried about, being here?"

"No," Nahuel replied. "You are more than safe under our guard. Cruz, who you met yesterday, he has a very well trained army on look out."

"On look out for what?" Bella said.

Nahuel's eyes crunched together. "They're more like self-defence." He stopped when we reached the top of the hill. "I'm going to head back to the cave," he said, to no one in particular. He didn't say goodbye, just turned and ran.

We ambled on for a bit. Zafrina thought we'd find more carnivorous animals in the higher plains and so we followed her up a steep gorge.

"How long have you been with Nahuel, Zafrina?" Bella said.

"With?" She laughed. "No, it's nothing like that. Me and my sisters have lived here with Nahuel and his aunt, Huilen, ever since our little visit to Forks. I guess you could say we found lots of things in common back then."

"Like a mutual hate for the Volturi?" Edward said.

She grinned. "Ooh Edward, I really can't keep anything from you now, can I?" Her smile broadened, and I don't know if I imagined it, but I thought I heard my mother grate her teeth together.

"So what's the story?" He pushed. "What's gotten to Nahuel?"

"Only a certain tracker named Demetri," she said. "He's tried to get to us for years. I don't know whether Nahuel is just scared because he is mortal," she glanced at me, "or annoyed that they want me not him. It's hard to have such a good gift without everyone else getting jealous." Again she smirked and lifted her hands up to paint a picture of an idyllic island spattered with palm trees and a gentle shore. The image - her gift - hovered in the air above the rocky ground in which we stood for ten seconds before fading away. This time she nudged Edward slightly. "Oh, come on, loosen up. I'm just joking."

"So, how have you managed it?" Bella said, looking a little impatient. "In my experience if the Volturi want you, they find you."

"Well, we are strong you know." Zafrina paused and then she threw her hands up in the air. "Okay, okay, so we had a little help... We had Cruz."

Their leader; the one who had been so hostile to us, so fraught with anger. I couldn't see how he fought off enemies with his sharpened spear alone. Were those dozen vampires he travelled with his army? Or did he have a power? My father's eyes flashed at the notion.

"A power? I knew it," Edward said. "That guy knew too much. What is it?"

"On his own, he is nothing," Zafrina said, "But with gifted people, he is an army in his own right, and a force to be reckoned with at that. Cruz has the ability to reflect people's powers. When I first met him, he had subconsciously reflected my power of illusions and was projecting it back at me. Back then he didn't even realize he was doing it!" Zafrina said, her face illuminated.

"Yes," Edward said, a sparkle of realization in his eyes. "Of course… Bella was being blocked by another shield." Bella looked at Edward in disbelief. "That makes him one powerful vampire," he added.

"That he is," Zafrina said, "he was able to identify that Demetri was trying to track us. They brought their army here you know. But using his gift, he was able to turn the Volturi's powers back on them. Cruz used Renata's power of disorientation against her. The Volturi couldn't understand why they were going in circles." She leaned forward smiling. "The Volturi guard crossed thousands of miles of South America, zigzagging the rainforest aimlessly but they couldn't find so much as a scent. Of course, they eventually left the way they came, only with a few less tribes in the rainforest."

No one laughed.

"What? You can't take a joke now?' She said.

"Am I the only one who's thirsty?" Bella exclaimed, flashing her ebony eyes at each of us in turn. I was too. I had been raw for a while but had pushed the coveted ache to the back of my mind. At the mere thought of a hunt, my throat started to tingle, salivating in my mouth; I was only too eager to oblige.

"Follow me," Zafrina said. Interesting. Together we launched into the trees.

I didn't smell anything at first so I followed them through the thick undergrowth relying on their senses for direction. The steep mountainous landscape was thick with trees and smaller brooks, which trickled into an array of miniature waterfalls around us. I hadn't gained a tremendous amount of experience of hunting outside the U.S. and wasn't sure what scents to expect. There was nothing familiar to latch on to.

Once we were far enough into the forest, Zafrina encouraged us to take the lead, following closely behind us. I wasn't sure she'd go through with the hunt, she didn't even seem thirsty.

Then a strong smell hit me.

It was a thick, foreign scent. I knew the others smelled it too as our pace quickened in pursuit. We sunk deeper into the rainforest. Then, the aroma took us up into the trees. First Bella jumped up, then Edward, me and Zafrina. I was not expecting to find anything of interest up there. I landed on a prickly branch about twenty feet in the air and hopped from one tree to the next, quite enjoying the twist in technique. It was a game, and I relished the chase.

Bella was the first to slow. Her eyes locked on something strange ahead of us. This wasn't normal; usually we went straight in for the kill. Usually we wouldn't be able to stop ourselves.

I looked past Bella to the prey she had found. The creature clung to a patch of leaves beside it, scoping us out from its minuscule eyes with much the same intrigue that we bestowed upon it. It stayed desperately still. From my slightly elevated position, I could see a ball of fur, from which a pinhead protruded. Small ears lined up with its small beady eyes. The features were bearded by an abundance of dark, course fur, which dominated its face and body.

Bella looked back to us.

The corners of Zafrina lips tuned down and she shrugged her shoulders. How would she know what these little creatures were like? Beside her a single nod from my father and without hesitation the attack commenced.

The creature wasn't nearly quick enough for Bella. Within seconds her teeth had sunk into its soft hide, as it began to lash its claws aimlessly. Bella's lips never left the creature, drinking, ravishing on the animal's blood. All I saw was the glint in her eyes and that was enough.

I leapt away from them through the trees on my new quest. The thrill of jumping from branch to branch reminded me of the games I would play with Jacob as a child. It was one of the only places that I could outrun him at every leap. Wolves weren't made for the trees.

I had not covered much distance at all, before I started to see the creatures all around. Their black-as-night eyes glistened from out of the foliage. What at first had looked like the decomposing of leaves was now distinctive, tar-like fur.

I bound towards my first prey without hesitation. It lingered midway up a mahogany tree with its claws wrapped tight around the branch; conspicuously still. A single swipe was all it took. One hand grasped around its neck, the other wielding off its flailing claws.

I landed on the ground some thirty feet below, recklessly guzzling at its neck with the same unquenchable thirst as my mother. It tasted different with its weedy, woodland aroma; somehow diluted from the tastes I was used to. I finished the creature off in seconds, with the realization that it would take a lot more of these species to douse the fire than raged within.

I trapped the next six with similar ease, before settling down to drink.

"That was different," I said, catching Bella's eye. She slowed, flashing me a smile. Different wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"Did you not find them unsatisfying?" Zafrina said, running to catch up. "They were so… anaemic!"

We laughed in agreement, after all we were so used to other weak-blooded animals like deer but they quenched our thirst nonetheless. I was impressed that Zafrina had bothered to try it out.

"You would prefer a carnivore like the mountain lion," Edward said walking over a rocky mound.

"It's our favorite," I added.

Zafrina grinned. "Well I'll hand it to you... you do not keep an easy way of life." She shook her head as she came towards us.

"Decisions are rarely easy," Edward said. "We do what we can—."

Something in Edward's words must have touched a nerve as he stopped mid-sentence and turned to Zafrina's perplexed expression.

"Are we done here?" She said.

She waited for Edward's nod before pulling at my hand. "Come on, I want to introduce you to the others."

It was my only father who held back.

"Are you sure?" Edward said. I watched Zafrina's expression change. "Will their leader be there?"

"Cruz?"

"Yes," he said. "I don't want him in my thoughts."

She paused glancing down to me. "But please let me take Renesmee to Kachiri, Senna and Huilen. They are so eager to meet her again?"

I liked the sound of that. Bella shot an uncertain look to Edward.

"Follow us to the tepee and hold back near the clearing if you prefer?" Zafrina added.

That seemed to ease Bella's anxiety somewhat.

Zafrina led us towards a thickened patch of undergrowth that loomed ahead. As we walked, she told us stories of the tribe.

"Apart from Nahuel and Huilen and of course my sisters, we have created them all."

"Newborns?" Bella asked, cautiously. The Volturi would definitely not like to hear that.

"I wouldn't call them that. Not anymore. We have been careful to change them slowly, one at a time. We have trained them over the years. They are all Yanomami warriors, and each one has been specifically chosen for their veneration to Shamans. We have been careful to create subservient fighters that will follow our plight."

At least they seemed to be in control of their army, whatever their plight may be.

"How many are there?" Edward asked.

"Thirty in total."

"Any more powers that we aren't aware of?" He said.

"Just Cruz."

When we reached the crest of a hill, Zafrina stopped and turned to them. "I think this is as far as you should go, Edward," Zafrina said. "If Cruz is in, he will no doubt be able to hear your thoughts if you come any closer."

Edward grunted.

"Gosh, I've not seen you this protective since Bella was human," Zafrina added, flashing a smile. "You forget, I was never one of the bad guys." Her eyes twinkled at him and for a moment I saw a golden glint in her pupils.

They pulled back towards the undergrowth, which meandered downhill into a valley while Zafrina and I walked on towards the tepee.

"I'm proud of you," Zafrina said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. "You've come all this way to find one of your own, it's impressive you know. Anyone else of your age would - and probably should - be scared of us. You've got guts Nessie and that's admirable."

"Call me Carlie," I said automatically, wincing as soon as the words came out of my mouth.

She shot me an inquisitive look.

"It is more in-fitting in Forks," I said and immediately I didn't feel admirable anymore.

She mused over my statement, emitting a laugh, "Forgive me but I have never come across vampires who have wanted to fit in so well with society before. But it makes perfect sense considering your family. So, Carlie, did you find what you were looking for?"

I paused. Had I found anything here at all? "I didn't find what I expected but at the same time, I didn't expect to find what I did."

"But what did you expect?"

A warm welcome at the very least, but Nahuel was not even capable of that. "I don't know. I am not well traveled but I think I have taken my coven for granted. I knew we lived differently from the others, we are so close but I had no idea quite how close."

"I'm sorry for the scare when you arrived. That must have been awful."

I shrugged like it was nothing.

"It's not even that. It's Nahuel. He is nothing like I thought… nothing like me."

"Don't be confused by Nahuel, he means well. He hides behind a hard shell but really he is just a sensitive guy. When you get to know him, you'll know what I mean."

"No, that wasn't what I meant, I was just… surprised by his attitude. We would not harm him, we would never wish anything bad on any of you."

She looked into my eyes like she could see my soul.

"Please forgive Nahuel his manners. If he seems a little protective, it is only because he interacts with so few people these days. All this cave dwelling has affected him."

"But that's just it, I can't understand a man who chooses to live in hiding." I flicked an intrusive fern away from me freeing my path ahead. "What forces him to stay in there all day and night?"

She paused, chewing her words over before she spoke. "Carlie, he is so afraid."

We walked on further, and up ahead the tip of the tepee poked through the tall conifer trees.

"What are your fears, Carlie?" She said. A week ago my fears were of attacking humans and whether I was emotionally mature enough to date a wolf. Now all I could think of was what I'd inadvertently shown Jacob and how upset that would have made him.

"My greatest fear is that my… friend, Jacob, will never speak to me again." I realized as I said it that my throat had thickened. It was the very thing that I had tried my hardest not to say and no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't separate my emotions enough find a rational explanation why Jacob had not texted me back the other day. Maybe he'd lost his phone too? Or the network was down in La Push. Hmm. Not the most realistic of explanations.

Zafrina looked toward me with caring eyes beneath their red glow. "Tell me about him."

"Well," I started. "Ever since I was a baby I was told that he 'imprinted on me'. It's a wolf thing. We were supposed to end up together."

"And you don't agree?"

"It's not that I don't, Jake's amazing, but...well he's a wolf."

She dismissed the comment with a shake of her head. "But does his company make you happier than anyone else's?"

"Yeah. I'm definitely the most comfortable with him. Well… I was. So much has happened this week that I find myself looking to call Jake, just to tell him, but he won't care now, not after what happened."

She pursed her lips. "Is he beautiful?"

The comment took my off guard. I'd never been asked to qualify his appearance before. Only Jaynie had done that for me. 'Tall guy, olive skin, short spiky hair, super worked out'.

"Look at you," Zafrina gasped. "I've never seen anyone's expression shift like that. You're positively glowing."

"I am?" I winced, embarrassed to admit affection.

"So, he's gorgeous, he's your best friend, confidant-."

"Kind of," I cut in. "I couldn't tell him about the dreams and then when I did, it totally backfired."

I reached to take her hand in mine, to unfold the whole story that I had been too scared to revisit.

I started from the beginning. We kept walking while I channeled through to her the events that had unfolded that night in his truck. Of course she recognized Jacob from our meet in Forks. Our intrinsic relationship with the wolves must have seemed so unbelievable to her but she didn't show it.

We walked on.

This was something of an experience in itself. Either she knew the path inside out, or she left the leading to me, as she watched my vision. I showed her the kiss, the punch, and the awful vision. It haunted me still.

I brought her back round when I saw the spire of the tepee breaking through the trees ahead. It caused the memories of last night's ambush to re-surface, which threatened to disturb the story I was conveying.

"Very interesting," she commented as my hand left hers. "You couldn't have anticipated how he'd take that, Carlie. Hot headed creatures they are. Love is never straight forward." Her look dissolved in awe. "Do you think you could ever trust a wolf?"

It was not a theory I'd ever considered. Surely I should be more concerned whether he could ever trust me again after what he saw? She left me pondering that very notion as we walked in.


	23. Chapter 23 - Benjamin

Chapter Twenty-Three: Benjamin

Alice had kindly offered to buy me lunch, which was nice seeing as she never seemed to eat. But given my parents were about to disown me for running off on some insane quest without so much as their permission, I'd been eating into my savings. I kept telling myself that I couldn't take the money with me after I'd gone, but even so, when Alice offered to pay, I was grateful.

"You can have fries too you know," she said.

I nodded at the attendant. "She's the boss. Fries on the side please." She grinned and me and drew a squiggle on her pad. We watched the attendant and her rather large bottom retreat to the kitchens.

"So, from what you told me about your vision, I narrowed it down to some people," Alice said, looking illuminated.

"Who? My murderer?"

"Yes." She seemed proud of herself. How in hell had she narrowed it down at all?

Alice put a brown leather knapsack on her knee and delved inside. She had a bunch of photos and a few drawings which she spread across the table over dollops of ketchup that hadn't been wiped away properly from the last people.

I wasn't in the least bit OCD but when I saw what looked like vintage photos being graffiti-ed with salad dressing, I had to get a paper napkin. I pulled a couple through one of those horrible silver holders. At first it wouldn't give, so I yanked again, and it took the top skin off my forefinger.

"Damn thing," I said, putting my finger in my mouth before it started to weep.

I don't know what I did to upset her, but she was already on her feet.

"I... I have to go," she said. It looked like she was battling tears or something. She was backing away from the table.

"Hey, what it is?" I said, standing up. "Alice, are you okay?"

She was shaking her head, and then she turned and practically sprinted down the mall.

I gathered all the photos from the table, and started to run after her.

"Hey, Alice. Where are you going? What's the matter?" I yelled after her. She must have done athletics at school, because, by the time I'd rounded the first corner, I saw her as she rushed through the glass exit doors onto the parking lot. I stopped running, and drew my hands to my knees, panting like a Pitbull Terrier in a cage fight. Around me, a few people was staring.

"Asthmatic," I said, taking a seat on the bench.

I strolled around the mall for some time after that. She had somehow made it to a hundred and thirteen years old without aging, so I doubted she was susceptible to something as trivial as the flu. Even so it was the strange look on her face that worried me. Maybe it was the color of her skin. No. It was always as white as a china bowl, but something had looked different. I couldn't put my finger on it.

I waited an hour before calling Alice's cell. Funnily enough she didn't pick up.

I had all but exhausted the place when I saw a stall selling some kind of tribal relics. There was an old lady, perhaps in her sixties, who was packing the stuff into boxes beneath the cloth sides of the stall. She was tan, and native American Indian by the look of her name badge, 'Kuckunniwi'. I wandered over and had a look at the trinkets. Kuckunniwi watched me rub my eyes.

I couldn't work out what I'd done to offend Alice. I knew I couldn't go to her house again. She'd made that expressly clear. But why did she ignore my calls? It was driving me mad.

"You look like you need some clarity on your dreams?" Kuckunniwi said.

"Something like that," I mumbled back. I looked at a line of dreamcatchers that hung from a cylindrical beam that bridged the two ends of the stall. I wasn't interested in buying one but I smiled at her anyway as I turned to leave. Then she reached out and took my hand.

"Geez," I said, looking back at her. It was like she had been holding onto a radiator.

She smiled at me, expecting my reaction. "Take this." She pushed something that looked like a pink tea bag into my palm. "You look like you could use some."

I frowned at her and tried to edge away, but she didn't let go and pulled me back slightly to look me straight in the eye. "This will help you see," she said.

Something in her voice told me that I should listen, but it was all too weird. Alice didn't age and was ridiculously cold. This woman was equally strange, aged and red hot like she was on fire. I looked down at the rose colored tea bag in my hands and shoved it into my pocket as I left. I walked down a couple of wide steps and entered the lot waiting for a car to pass before crossing onto the other side of the road. It was going dark and as I looked towards my car, headlights from another one shone straight towards it, illuminating a figure beside it.

"Oh, you've returned," I said.

"I'm sorry about before," Alice said, stepping out of the shadows into a pool of light from the nearby lamppost. She crunched her eyebrows together and reached out for me. "I panicked. It caught me off guard."

"Most of the time you're so nice," I said. "And I believed you when you said you would help me, but you keep me secret from the rest of your family, and then you jump up and run off all the time. What is it? Did you see something? And if you did, you could have just told me there was something you needed to do. You don't have to act so weird around me all the time."

She dropped her head. "I need to tell you about me."

"You've successfully brainwashed me, Alice. Really, I don't want to know. Whatever weird gift you have that stops you from aging is fine by me, but there is only so much I can take in right now, so no, I just don't want to know."

She stopped and turned to me. "But I think you need to know."

I put my key in the lock and pulled on the car door. It had a habit of sticking, especially in colder weather, and it needed slightly more force than normal to prize it open.

"I'm going back to the motel. I'm tired and I think I could use the sleep." Only eighty-six sleeps left until dee-day. "I'll see you around."

"I want to help you, Benjamin," she said.

"Yeah, you and me both."

"At least look through the photos," she said, pointing to them in my hand. I hadn't so much as looked down at them since she'd left. "If it's none of them, then my hunch was wrong, and I'll let it go."

"I'll think about it," I said as I drove away.


	24. Chapter 24 - Jacob

Chapter Twenty-Four: Jacob

It didn't take much; barely a day had passed before Sam promoted himself back to alpha of the pack. I didn't care so long as it didn't include me. To make up for lost time he had the rest of them doing star jumps on the beach to his command. What else was there to do at the weekend?

They say you can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink. I was that horse. They'd dragged me this far but I wasn't ready to take the next step on my own. I wasn't physically hurt but my body felt broken. So, I nestled myself into a crevice at the back of the beach between two large rocks. I watched the others jumping around for a minute, then pulled the hood of my sweater up over my head and partly over my face until I could only see their sneakers making waves in the sand. I tried to tune out Sam's commands but no matter how much silence I bought myself, my head was still full of noise. The 'what if's' and 'maybe' scenarios played over and over in my brain. What she'd told me that night must have been impossible for her to relay. I'd never considered how difficult it must have been for Carlie. Still it hurt me more. She'd lost a friend. I'd lost a piece of myself.

It wasn't until a fresh pair of shoes crossed my path that I realized it was even late. I studied them for a moment noticing the way the setting sun drew shadows from them onto the sand. Then she coughed. It wasn't enough to make me look up but it caught my attention nonetheless. One of the shoes started to tap impatiently.

"Long time, J," she said finally in a strangely familiar accent.

No one had called me 'J' for a long time, no one apart from Carlie, and she would never wear heels on the beach. Reluctantly, I squinted up into the last throes of the evening sun.

"I hear you're not feeling well?" she continued, unsympathetically.

At first I stared in disbelief. It looked like my mother but it couldn't be? It had been so long since the crash, so long since her passing. I gulped and tried to find the words but none came.

"So that's how you greet you big sister after all this time," she added, not even flinching as I gawped.

"Rebecca?"

"Let's start again, J. 'How are you Becca? I've really missed you'," she retorted. "Or how about, 'isn't it nice you're here. It's been a while'."

"Well it is. I mean it is nice to see you. What a surprise." I scrambled to my feet but her attentions had already been distracted by Sam, Uley, Seth, Leah, Jared, Paul, Collin and Brady down by the shore. They were now doing push ups beneath the setting sun.

"It looks like cadet camp or something," she mused. "And what on earth is Leah Clearwater doing with all those guys?"

"A lots changed while you've been gone."

"Clearly." She flicked round in time to size me up and down. "Geez Jake, when did you grow? And that was without lifting my head up fully. I started to walk up the beach. She stepped awkwardly behind me for a few paces, hobbling on the loose sand. "You're actually gonna walk in those?"

I didn't turn to see her expression. Moments later she caught me up, dangling her shoes by their laces.

"So what's the illness?" she said.

"I'm not sick."

"That's not what dad said."

I struggled a smile. "Very funny."

"Okay." She twisted around slightly flicking a long piece of hair from her face and looking at me in the eye. "So maybe the word he actually used was 'lovesick'?" She continued to gaze at me expectantly.

"The story of my life," I muttered, walking on.

"So talk to me, J, is she one of us?"

Was she one of anything? "She's kind of unique," I said walking towards the sea with a brief thought that I could wade out to drown out all the noise.

"Oh, come on. Are you gonna make me force every word out of you?" She said. "Dad won't tell me anything, and Rachel's too busy talking about the wedding. So, you're the only shot I've got left at some kind of sensible conversation, and I must tell you, you're not doing so well at even that."

"Well then, no, she's not one of us if you must know." I stopped to pick up a smooth round stone and flicked it out to sea. "She's not Quileute, she's not from La Push, and she doesn't particularly like it round here either."

"So maybe I'd get on with her then." Rebecca smirked. She took one look at me and her expression sobered. "She really has got to you hasn't she?"

I hung my head and walked on. "I don't know what else I can do," I said, pathetically. "This girl... she's the only one for me but... well, she doesn't think so. I just don't understand it, I can't be wrong... not about this." I slipped into a flashback of the night I saw the real Carlie Cullen, when she'd made her feelings so abundantly clear. There was no confusing the sheer repulsion she had felt for me. It wasn't just the way she had looked at me in her visions, it was the overwhelming feelings that had radiated from her hands.

"How do you know. What did she say?"

"It's not exactly what she said." I'd expect Rebecca to fall off her chair in shock if I tried to explain the visions. "But she made her feelings perfectly clear... she's interested in other guys, at least she thinks she is."

"But you think she's wrong?"

She watched me nod.

I desperately hoped she was wrong, even though I was lucid enough to know that all the evidence suggested otherwise. "Did you try telling her that?" she prompted.

Like I'd want her to see me fall apart, and then, worse, grovel to her. I'd put my heart on the table with Bella and see where that had got me. But this was different. I thought Bella was monumentally important back then. This was different league. "It's not that easy, Bex. She's stubborn."

"And have you called her since?"

No," I lied, too quickly. She stared at me but didn't say anything. Eyebrows raised. "Well, maybe a couple of times but it went straight to voicemail. She didn't even have the decency to pick up." It made me feel so foolish saying the words aloud. Who was I kidding, I was already groveling to her, setting myself up for worse heartache than I already had to endure. I bowed my head in my hands and started massaging my temples. "I don't know what else I can do."

We wandered up a steep rocky path that led back to the road. By the time we reached the top Rebecca was so thirsty that she practically dragged me to the nearest café.

Ten minutes later, we'd settled ourselves into the front booth at Malone's; a small restaurant on the edge of the forest that served great burgers and long curly fries. I watched Becca sip a mug of coffee. There was almost no similarity to Rachel yet she looked every bit of how I remembered my mother, with her long glossy black hair that she flicked from side to side.

"Bex?" I said. She looked up, startled that I'd tried to make conversation. "Why did you run away all those years ago?"

She put her drink down and looked at me quizzically. "You know why, J, it wasn't right for me here. It never felt right."

"Why? I mean how does someone know when they're a teenager that they can't stand a place. Was it so terrible here?"

"You don't look like you're enjoying it," she replied.

Fair point.

She leaned forward on the table. "This place is eerie, J. Don't you sense it? There's something so not right about it."

"Like what?" I said, gulping a mouthful of hot cocoa. Surely she didn't know about the wolves?

"Like everywhere I turn there are ghosts," she continued. She played with a paper napkin, ripping at its corners and watching them fall like feathers onto her lap.

I took a sip of my drink. "You mean mom?"

"Yeah sort of." She sighed, piling some of the paper shreds onto the table. "That's probably the hardest thing to face but it's not just mom. I mean everyone. The same old thing happening, the same old way it's always happened. If I'd stayed here, I would have driven myself mad dwindling on the past and never moving on with my life. I just couldn't do it."

I was one of the ghosts stuck on the past.

"You know you can never really feel alive if you can't move on," she continued. "Mom's death... I couldn't get over it… and I was letting it take over. I couldn't just release it. That's what I did when I got to Hawaii and that's what you need to do about this girl. At least you know where you stand. As you said, she didn't even have the decency to call you back, not even for closure. That tells me that she's not there for you and never will be. You need a break, and you need to start over."

"I can't just move away," I said, affronted. "She might be screwing with my head but it's not something I'm prepared to run away from."

"Perhaps you don't need to. But you need to make peace with it and accept it, cos the more you try to keep hold of her in your heart, the more it will slowly grind you down." She took another slurp of her drink and while I waited for my burger, I began to think of a way to let her go.


	25. Chapter 25 - Carlie

Chapter Twenty-Five: Carlie

A silence fell in the great tepee as we entered. It was full of vampires. The faces that only yesterday had threatened me so, were now still and watchful. Their crimson eyes danced but not of fear or thirst; they looked at me with wonder. I stayed close to Zafrina; my heart beating like great drums. I lifted my head higher to compensate the nerves.

"We call ourselves the Shaman coven," Zafrina explained, gesturing her arms out to the others. A few of them nodded to me.

We followed a cloth path round a bend to the right where a wall of cardboard boxes obscured the view. We passed through two rows of them before I spotted familiar faces. Senna, Kachiri and Huilen were crouched over some crates like the ones in Nahuel's cavern. It was Kachiri who jumped up first, followed silently and swiftly by Huilen and Senna.

"Greetings Renesmee," Kachiri started, running a fond hand across my cheek. She marveled at the mild heat I exuded. "If we had only known, we would have come for you ourselves." Here in the middle of the forest, it didn't look like the kind of place with a phone line but I smiled back at her politely.

Behind Kachiri, Senna spoke up. "And we're sorry if Cruz shocked you. You know he has not stopped talking about you, Nessie."

"She goes by the name Carlie now," Zafrina added with a smile. I would never have corrected her of my name. I wasn't as familiar with Senna and I tried not to notice the others raise their eyebrows around me.

"Well, Carlie, do you want to meet Cruz properly?" Zafrina said.

I most certainly did not; the thought was inconceivable but I found myself being pulled along by Zafrina to the far corner of the great tent. It looped even further round to the right before we found him yanking on an unusual pulley system, tying up a long length of rope to some levers. Once we came into view, he abandoned them completely.

"Ah, what took you so long?" He said. He took a moment to reach for Zafrina's hands, taking them in his and kissing her lips. Zafrina had definitely not mentioned that earlier.

"Hunting," she said. "You would not believe it." She painted a scene of herself chasing a sloth. He laughed out loud before turning to me.

"Cruz, this is Carlie," Zafrina said.

He bowed down to me, a far cry from earlier. Then he raised his hand in my direction. I pulled back.

"It's okay, Carlie, he wants to see your power," Zafrina said. "He's not had the chance to test it out. Will you show him?"

They all looked at me.

I didn't want to show him anything. He had scared me half to death and now he wanted to see my power.

"I am sorry," he said, picking up on my reluctance. He held his had out once more.

Slowly I lifted my hand to his. This time I let our fingers spark as they met; it was much stronger than I anticipated causing him to set back slightly in surprise.

I showed him the time we had first met, when we were on the boat. The raw fear and panic flowed through to him and he watched animated. Over the years I had improved the clarity in my visions and I not only conveyed the experience with my emotions but I added sound, from his booming voice as he called out to us, to the tiny crickets cracking their wings in the forest all around.

Then as I tried to pull the vision back and close it off tidily, I saw the scene change completely. My images, which were marred by the darkness had now brightened, so sharp, like a television that had been tuned into a higher definition. This time it was Cruz who was concentrating.

I could now see birds in the trees several miles away. I could identify each grain of soil and each blade of grass like it was sitting in the palm of my hand. I looked around eager to absorb every detail of the vision in a way that I hadn't observed the first time. Then I saw the boat. It rocked gently in the swell of the river with one end firmly levered up to the shore.

Two people stood on it, tensed and ready for attack: my parents.

"Its no use," Cruz heard from the female on the boat, "Something's blocking my shield."

'_She must try again, why at a time like now does her shield not work?'_ It was my father's thoughts! Of all the times I'd wanted to know what he was thinking. Edward's head dipped towards the bank of the river where the vision was coming from and a sharp squeak emitted like the sound of two radio frequencies buzzing in collision. It was piercing and caused Edward to flinch. I hadn't heard that the other day.

'_There's an echo, why is there an echo? Something's not right here,'_ Edward thought. _'Why would they attack for no reason?' _

Cruz tensed as the images rolled on.

'_How I wish Carlisle was here right now, he would know what to do. I bet he would speak to them; that's what I must do, I must speak to them, I must assure them that we are no threat.' _

"We mean you no harm," Edward's slightly unsure voice called out from the boat. The emotions that flowed from Cruz were of amusement. _'If they think we are a menace they will attack, and we are so outnumbered,' t_he thoughts from Edward continued.

"We did not know that these lands we're occupied," Edward's voice called out again. _'We cannot let them harm her. If they launch now without Bella's shield, we will not be able to protect Renesmee and we cannot, no we must not let that happen.'_

The whole vision changed its focus, softening slightly, under a newfound curiosity. 'Who is Renesmee?' Cruz was thinking. After some conversation he ordered me to show myself. I watched my small frame come into view from the boat. _'She is beautiful,' _Cruz thought. '_She has the same flush in her cheeks and pump in her heart. It can't be?' _

Then everything went dark, and my fingers started to tingle, but I wasn't ready for it to stop. I don't know how Jacob had done it but I tried to take control, to flick the switch back. I thought back to the clearing when we were surrounded. Cruz had disappeared into the tepee, then reappeared less than a minute later. What had he gone there to do? I concentrated hard on the vision and pulled at it, trying to grab hold of the images in my mind to see more. It seemed to respond; slowly at first, then I found all I needed to do was pull at it and the vision sprung to life. I watched Cruz push open the heavy door cloth in my mind and felt myself sweep into the tepee behind him.

Cruz was walking. He didn't stop until he'd curled the corner and spotted a female vampire that I didn't recognize, walking in great steps towards her.

"Where's Zafrina?" He said, his voice gruff.

She looked startled by his entrance. "She has gone with Senna and Huilen to Table Point, though she's not expected back for a while. Why?"

"We found something. Two strangers, with powers, and a... half-blood."

"What?" The woman said. "Did you not kill them?"

"No, Ria." The feelings oozing from Cruz were of impulse and faith. "It's the girl. She is dark, with a beating heart but doesn't smell like one of them."

"Are you brought her here? Are you crazy? You know the prophecy."

"Better than you might think," he said, sternly.

"And it only takes one half-blood—."

"A male, half-blood," he corrected, his eyebrows raised. "She is nothing." He shook his head from side to side. She might be interesting for our master, but she is not the one the Shaman spoke of, a half-blood, nothing more."

"You dare not take them to him. You know what Zafrina said."

"I have to," Cruz said. "They know about him. "

'_What's the prophecy?'_ I said in my mind. It didn't interfere with the vision, and Cruz didn't respond. Perhaps talking during visions wouldn't work after all. Nevertheless I liked this new tool I'd found. So before letting go of Cruz, I tried to jump to a new scene. It was surprisingly easy. I painted it in my head, and bam, it sprung to life.

The tent door sprung open beneath his sharp kick, and bounced away like a sail trapped within a gust of wind. There we were, encircled by the warriors, metaphorically quaking in our boots. The vision came coated in Cruz's emotions, which were not of our fear, but of his intrigue.

His attention quickly snapped from me to my father.

'_I've seen them before,' _Edward was thinking, looking around him at the warriors that encircled us._ 'Has this tribe been watching Nessie?'_


	26. Chapter 26 - Benjamin

Chapter Twenty-Six: Benjamin

I did as I said I would. Straight back to the motel, grabbed a hot chocolate from the machine down the hall, and collapsed onto my bed. The mattress was too thin to actually provide relief from the knot in my back, but the meagre comfort it offered was gratefully received.

I told myself I should sleep before taking a good look at the photos. This was my murderer I was going to identify, and that took some preparation.

I dozed for an unsettled hour, got up, took a shower, and was plugging my cell in to charge, when I saw the stack of pictures on the table beside the television. I wish I had bullish confidence or nerve. My grandmother Esther once told me I needed to get myself some chutzpah. I'd spent the whole afternoon wondering whether that was some exotic fruit before my father explained that I just wasn't a courageous person. 'It's okay to be a softie,' he'd said. That was before anyone had threatened my life.

It made me think of Jennifer Moroney. The girl who I had let down. If only I had trusted in my visions. I should have done something to help her when I had the chance. It was then that I decided I would not be that boy anymore. If I was to survive I had to be bold, and I had to face my enemies, even if they were just on paper.

I picked the photos up and laid them out across the bed. None of the photos were new, and from their outfits, I guessed that these people were either at a masquerade ball or they had the same gift as Alice and didn't age either.

One was turned over the wrong way, and beside the salad cream smudge I saw a name drawn in Alice's neat handwriting. 'Aro' the first one said. He was not the man from my visions.

I looked over another few. Marcus, Caius, and a boy who looked about twelve, who turned out to be called Alec. I shook my head and picked up the last piece of paper. This one wasn't a photograph but a drawing; quite clear to the extent that a hand drawing could be. I didn't know that Alice was an artist.

This one was enormous, with broad shoulders that ran right up to his severe jaw, almost eclipsing his squat neck. He had a flat nose, bright red eyes and short, cropped hair. On the back was scribbled the word Felix.

I closed my eyes and imagined the scene that I'd been trying to forget for the past two and a half weeks. I saw myself reaching for the door. When I pulled it back, it was him.

It was a little after 10am the next day when I pulled up to the gallery. Alice had not come out last night despite my revelations. In fact she'd not even let me discuss it over the phone. Instead she'd said she would love to see the new exhibition and arranged to meet me here in the morning. Some kind of coded message perhaps, but even so, here I was outside the gallery, my hands shaking and sweating with the drawing in my grasp.

I'd made it through the night without hyperventilating over the identify of my killer but that did not mean that I'd got any sleep. I'd tossed back and forth for hours, brewing with questions that I had for Alice. Why did she not call me back? She'd brushed me off over the phone with some garbage story about an art gallery, which I didn't fully understand, but then when it came to Alice there was more and more that didn't make sense. If these people were like her, then it was time to face the truth.

I re-checked my watch at 10.17am. She said she would be here around half past, but I couldn't spend any longer pacing around my motel room.

"Breakfast?" She said, tapping on my window waving a brown bag in her hands. For someone who never appeared to be hungry, she was certainly astute when it came to my appetite.

"I could hear your stomach rumbling from the road," she said, watching me tuck into the egg mac-sandwich thing. It didn't look altogether appealing, but it sure was tasty.

"Do you not want to know who it was I recognized?" I said, between bites.

"It doesn't matter."

"What? You were the one telling me it was so important and thrusting those photos in my face. You're kidding me right?"

"I didn't mean it's not important. I just meant it doesn't matter which one it is. If it's any of them, then it's as I feared. It's bad."

"Oh great, makes me feel so much better."

She looked at me devouring the last bit of the bun. "You wanna go inside. It's a Dale Chihuly exhibition. Quite extraordinary."

Why not? Given the choice between talking about my impending death, or taking a moment to appreciate a bit of art, the decision was easy.

I followed her out of the car, towards the main entrance. The museum was basically a barn, with the whole front ripped out and replaced by double height glazing. Inside there were islands of glass, from balls of swirling color, to intricate sea forms that seemed to be glowing. A special pond area had been created at the back with blue and green glass tendrils, which stretched out over the water. Alice watched me with a strange look across her face.

"It's nice to see your expression," she said. "I've forgotten what it's like to see something for the first time."

She smiled and walked alongside me until we reached a display with old boats overflowing with glass pieces.

"So, are you going to tell me the truth or what?" I said.

She bowed her head and leaned in closer.

"Are you ready to hear it?"

I nodded and sat on a bench that faced out onto a walled garden where the exhibition extended outside.

"You know when you're a kid and you like reading creepy books, and at the end of the night your mom says it's only a story," she said. I nodded.

"Well," she continued, "what if they were real, some of them."

"Not Frankenstein?" I said. I had hated Frankenstein, and that was the one character with jumped to mind when I thought of that drawing back in my hotel room.

She smiled but only a little. "Not Frankenstein."

"Who were those people on the photographs?" I said. "Why did you think it would be them?"

"They are members of a coven called the Volturi."

"A coven?"

"Yes, a group of... people, kind of like the mafia."

"Oh." Great. Not only was someone after me, but it all stemmed from some kind of weirdo mafia.

I look up at her, confused. I couldn't understand why a bunch of people like that would take any interest in me whatsoever. I was just some wimpy kid from a small town.

"And I don't think they intend to kill you," she said after a moment. "That's not their style."

"Well that is good news," I said. "Isn't it?" Her facial expression still looked sombre. "You mean they leave me for dead, but I don't actually die. Should I pretend to be dead, for effect? Will it hurt?"

"No, that's not what I mean. I think he's planning something worse, and yes, it will hurt."

Alice jumped up and led me out into the gardens. It was windy and I pulled my jacket in. So much for it being summer. I hadn't seen a day of sunshine since I'd arrived.

"I'm not quite sure how to tell you this, Ben," she continued. As if 'it will hurt' was not enough.

She stopped walking and turned to face me, her eyes luminous yellow and her expression austere.

"I think they might want you to join them. I think the whole reason they come after you is for your gift, and I think they have found a way to make you listen." She looked away. "The Volturi can be very... persuasive."

"So they threaten me? They pretend to kill me to scare me?"

"I think they turn you."

I walked on. "Turn me into what? An employee? Their little messenger boy? An exhibit in their travelling circus?"

"A vampire," she whispered.

Although soft, it rung loud like church bells, and brought me to an abrupt halt.

At that point two things crossed my mind. The first, that vampires actually existed. I couldn't fight against creatures like that. I'd seen Bram Stoker's Dracula; there was no way I could fight against him. And the second seemed to follow the first. How did she know?

She didn't age. She didn't eat. She didn't tell me anything about herself, or let me meet her family, and she'd practically gone nuts when I'd cut my finger in that restaurant in the food court at the mall.

Her eyebrows cast down at their outer edges, her lips were pursed, and she was watching me very closely.

I started shaking my head at her.

She bit her lip and looked away.

"No, no, no," I started saying. She moved towards me, and tried to put her hand on my shoulder. Her ice cold, demon hand.

I started edging away.

"Ben, it's alright to be weirded out. I would be too."

Shaking my head I looked towards the doors. There was one that led back into the museum and a smaller one, a gate, which wrapped round the side of the barn and I presumed led back to the parking lot. That was the one I ran for.

The gate was locked by a catch at the top. After rattling it a bit, I eased it free and didn't look back. I made it to the car and then to the freeway. Still no sign of her.

It was only when I reached the state lines that I truly believed she was not following me. I pulled over at a gas station, washed my face in the sink of the men's restroom, and studied the reflection hard.

Was Alice a vampire? And worse, did she think that this Volturi was going to turn me into one too?


	27. Chapter 27 - Jacob

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Jacob

Dear Nessie or Carlie, or whatever you want to be called,

Itís been nearly a week since you sent me that text message but it seems like so much more. The others told me I was mad to make contact with you and for the first four days I didnít but thereís something I need to say, and if you wonít turn your phone on or respond to my voice messages then I guess Iíll have to write it down in a letter.

I want you to know that I forgive you. Itís not easy for me to say let alone come to terms with but I see now that I made it awkward for you when your heart wasnít in it. I only wish after all this time you could have just told me that. You owed me that as your friend at the very least.

Now Iím sitting here feeling like a complete idiot, and wondering where it all went wrong but you know what, it doesnít matter anymore. Youíve made your feelings perfectly clear. Even your silence speaks volumes, and if nothing else, at least now we both know where we stand.

I shanít call you anymore. I know thatís not what you want, so donít worry, you can turn your cell phone back on. And I wonít visit the others when youíre there. No, in fact I wont be visiting them at all. Rosalie is still as obnoxious as she ever was, Iím hardly even close to Bella anymore, and although the others are faintly tolerable, we both know thatís not the reason I would visit anyway.

I canít understand why all this has happened. No one has ever rejected an imprinting before. But itís what you want, and I love you enough to respect that.

So farewell forever, J


	28. Chapter 28 - Carlie

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Carlie

"Over here," I heard from up above me. My parents were ambling down a rocky path to the right. I ran the short stretch up into my father's arms.

"I'm so glad to see you both," I said, before pulling away.

They both looked at me strangely and together we walked down into a small clearing where a brook bubbled beneath a shroud of wild grass. "Cruz sent me a vision," I said, before they had chance to ask. I was far more excited about the part I'd forced out of Cruz. Now I understood how Jacob had flipped the switch on me; it wasn't really that hard at all. If I set my thoughts directly on what I wanted to see then somehow it materialized.

"Dad?" I said again, narrowing my eyes slightly. "I heard something else in Cruz's visions."

He paused then sighed as the events played out in my head. "You're wondering why I didn't tell you?"

"Tell you what?" Bella said.

"You think the tribe have been watching me?" I prompted.

"What?" Bella said, her eyes wide. "Watching you where? Here, in the Amazon?" Edward's face didn't change at all. "At home?" She pushed. "In Forks?"

Edward squirmed slightly. "That was taken out of context. I didn't think that."

"Yeah, you did. I heard it, dad. You said you've seen them before. Have you seen any of those vampires near the cottage?"

He smiled. "No, it was not the vampires I'd seen before, it was the markings on the trees."

"Markings?" Bella said. She crossed her arms, and stared at him.

"Three equally spaced slash marks about ten feet up the trees. It was Carlisle that noticed them first, clustered around the cottage."

Bella seemed to relax slightly. "Oh, so they could have been made by an animal? There's plenty of them around."

Edward twisted his lips slightly but didn't speak. He veered in the direction of rushing water. "I'm not sure if we're reading into this too much," he said. "I'd like to get Alice's opinion when my cell phone gets some signal."

"If she's not off with that guy," I said.

They both glanced at me.

"What? I know you two must be thinking it too," I said. "She's snuck off a load of times."

"So, lets say she's met up with him," he said, "then she'd have taken her eye off the ball so to speak. She may not have noticed anything amiss back home."

"So we agree, she's cheating on Jasper?" I said.

Edward looked aggrieved. "Let's not jump to conclusions just yet."

We made our way towards the sound of the great waterfall, crunching over wild undergrowth as we walked. To my surprise, Nahuel was standing at the bank of the river. His physique seemed leaner than before, flanked by a long shadow. His tassels of hair were now scooped into a low, loose knot that revealed much warmer skin than I had acknowledged back in the cave. In fact, he looked quite handsome in the throes of the sun's rays, with his twinkling skin dancing in the evening glare.

He watched us approach with reprehension.

"Where is Zafrina?"

"She stayed with her sisters at the great tepee," I said.

"She took you there?" He looked appalled.

I nodded.

"Cruz tried my power," I said. "Does that mean he can use it on anyone now?"

"No, it only works when that person is present. In your case, touch is needed, so he can only send visions to you, when he is in direct contact. In Edward's case, just proximity is needed, so he can hear his thoughts from a given distance; whatever that might be."

"It's varies depending on how well I know the person," Edward replied. Great, so he could probably hear my thoughts a mile away. "He hears just my thoughts?" Edward furthered, cautiously.

Nahuel turned to face them. "Yes, that's right. It's like he turns the person's power back on them."

"Ah, I see." Edward rested his hand on my shoulder. "Do you mind if Bella and I take a walk?" I felt a slight nudge from him as he spoke.

'_Great thanks, dad,'_ I thought. I nodded meekly and looked up to Nahuel. Surprisingly, he seemed quite happy to be left in my company.

He smiled at me, not the warm effervescent beam that Jake would give. No teeth, and the corners of his eyes remained level.

"Where would you like to go?" Nahuel said, injecting some excitement into his otherwise drab tone.

"Go? Er, I don't know… anywhere really. Table Point?" I'd heard the female vampire mention it to Cruz in his vision.

Nahuel raised his eyebrows and gestured towards the ridge that protracted far beyond the waterfall. The sun was setting on the peak like a soft egg that had just been cracked. Wild orange ribbons of yolk streaked across the skies.

"Okay." He looked down on me with large rose-teak eyes.

"We're going to take a closer look at those tree markings," Bella said from beside me. I nodded and watched them shrink back into the trees until I was alone with Nahuel. He gestured to start walking and together we headed in the opposite direction to my parents along the riverbank.

As we walked he asked me about Forks. It seemed odd for him to take such an interest in my life, given how cold he had been, but I talked about it nonetheless, explaining how I'd spent the last year attending Forks High School.

"You go to school - with humans?" He seemed shocked.

"Yes but my real friends are my family, our coven. They know me best. They know everything." And of course Jacob, but it didn't seem right to mention him seeing as he was currently absconding from his side of the friendship. Nahuel watched me as I spoke, and something in his expression made me feel slightly guilty for the way I idolized them. "You have built quite a family around you too," I said.

He grunted. "They are not real. I am not naive enough to think they shall be around forever. I just hope they will be around for long enough—." He stopped bluntly and I peered back at him from several paces ahead.

"We cross here," he said, glancing at me briefly before leaping up into the air. He landed cleanly on a sandy mound, infiltrated with trees that hung low, bowing into the water on occasion. The river had split into several smaller estuaries, broken up by shallow banks. We would cross by leapfrogging the small islands like hop scotch. He turned in time to see me land beside him on the first of many islands.

"What did you mean when you said you hope the others stick around for long enough; long enough for what?" I said.

He shrugged, turning wistfully for the next jump, and then he was gone.

"What about your real family then," I shouted across the next river, before launching high into the air. I landed behind a white chalky Guaricica tree, which masked his face from my view momentarily. "Do you not want to see your father or your sisters?"

He looked ready to leap ahead of me once more but stopped and turned to face me. "I've seen them already this decade and once was enough."

With that he took off again, rising high into the air above me. I followed as quickly and nimbly as I could.

He took the final leap to clear the other side of the wide river. "Race you to the top," he shouted behind him, in a serious tone.

"It's beautiful," I said, taking in the sight of a thousand acres of untouched rainforest that lay peacefully in the valley beneath me. The view at the top of the mountain was dappled in autumnal colors from the final remnants of the crimson sun. Nahuel stood rigidly at the peak of the mountain like a sundial with his angular features casting shadows across his face. He surveyed the landscape with an apprehension than soon subsided into appreciation. I suspected that it was rare he took the time to see the views from up here.

"Nahuel, why did you come out of your cave tonight?" I said.

He swallowed turning away from me to the valley.

"I have been far from hospitable since you arrived. It is not fair of me to expect you to stay in the confines of the cavern because I do."

"It was worth it to come and see this sunset," I gestured.

"It was worth it to spend some time with you."

I blushed. "You should venture out more."

In the distance, the vampires were assembling around the tepee. Nahuel had taken a new hobby of staring at me. To look at him now would be to lock eye contact and there was something about Nahuel that intimidated me too much, and so I stared out into the valley.

"Why do they all live in that tepee?" I asked, squinting towards the clearing, where small dots swarmed like bees around a hive.

"In the Shabono?"

"The what?"

"The disc-shaped structure," he said, pointing to it. "Is that what you mean?"

I nodded.

They're quite common round these parts. You see in the center, there's an open-air plaza. That's where they congregate."

I hadn't ventured out there this morning with Cruz.

"They believe it's an earthly version of God's house."

"And what do you believe?"

He sighed. "When you've lived as long as I have, you start to question everything you ever believed." He looked away, a wave of sadness washed across his face.

"What are they doing down there anyway?"

"They're training. They must be on their guard at all times."

"I have never seen such defenses. It's like you are preparing for war."

His heartbeat sped up.

"What?" I repeated. "Nahuel, what's going on?"

He didn't speak at first but turned away from me.

"It's getting late, let's head back," he said, and he started walking down the mountain, leaving me yet again trailing behind.

"Okay, so you don't want to talk about it," I said, after thirty minutes of silence, in which a surprising amount of anger had started to curdle between us. The path was almost pitch black and his pace was quick but uneven, which made him harder to follow. "Nahuel, for the hundredth time, I'm sorry, I won't mention it again. It's none of my business."

"It's not," he said, in the crisp, hard tone I'd witnessed yesterday. No more eye contact.

"Does it have something to do with the prophecy?"

He stopped so abruptly I nearly walked straight into him.

"What do you know of the prophecy?" He said, his face so close I could feel his breath. "Oh, of course. It's that intrusive father of yours. So much for his discretion." He spat onto the ground, turned and walked on.

"No, no it wasn't him. My dad doesn't know anything of this. It was Cruz."

He slowed, and redness began to boil beneath his cheeks.

"I mean, I heard it in a vision from Cruz. He said it was something to do with a shaman and a half-blood... is it true?"

Nahuel bit his lip.

"It does not concern you," he said, and walked on.


	29. Chapter 29 - Benjamin

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Benjamin

It had taken me twelve hours to pick up the phone to her, and that was only because I was confident that three hundred miles was far enough that she wouldn't be able to find me, but even so, like the films I only spoke for fifty seconds before making her ring back so she couldn't trace the call.

"I understand why you're upset," she said.

"Not you don't. Upset is when you fall off your bike. Upset is when you flunk your exam. Upset is nothing compared to this. You're a freaking vampire now?"

She lowered her voice. "Are you going to hang up again?"

"Yes," I said, and slammed the phone down. I waited for her to ring back. I couldn't get my head around it. I'd told her all about my family, all about my death. I'd probably given her the head start she'd needed. Why wait till September. I'd told her all about my gift. She needed it to keep tabs on Carlie, which made me the asset. Forget about that guy called Felix and his weird Volturi. I had far greater problems, a lot closer to home.

"Okay, I'm not tracking you," she said, the third time she rung. "And if I was, I wouldn't be doing it via the phone lines."

I jumped to my feet and rushed back to my car. I had to keep moving. I had to put more distance between us. Maybe that old man in the asylum wasn't so crazy after all.

"Oh, so how would you do it?" I pushed down on the accelerator pedal.

"I'd follow your scent."

What. I slammed the brakes. I hadn't even made it out of the restaurant car park.

"Technically speaking, I could come and find you, but please Ben, understand me when I say I'm not going to. I want to build our friendship. You're family. I want to help you."

"But you're a..."

"Yes, I know. This is exactly why I didn't want to tell you, but I'm one of the good guys."

I ignored her. So much for family. I think I preferred my senile Uncle Lionel.

"When I cut my finger in the food court the other day, were you thinking of... eating me?" I said. Maybe the lunatic that comes for me would be doing me a favour. I didn't want to be dinner for any of them.

"Don't be silly," she said. "You've seen my eyes."

"The ones you said were a funny color because of some chromosome disease?"

"Yes. But they're not red like The Volturis'."

"And why is that?" I spat.

"Because I only drink animal blood. See, Ben, I'm vegetarian."

I shook my head. "Not good enough," I said, and hung up.


	30. Chapter 30 - Jacob

Chapter Thirty: Jacob

Barely a day had passed since I posted my letter through Carlie's door and yet I still felt no better. Worse in fact. I'd cut myself off from her and now there was no hope that she'd call, no hope for any resolution. It was my father who took me on my next outing, or rather I took him but it wasn't out of choice. His wheelchair had jarred, and no amount of greasing it would tease the knot free. When I took my tools to it, the nuts shattered like dust.

I lifted dad into the truck and slung the wheels into the back. It was a job for the mobility shop down in Oil City. Ironic name, given the circumstances in which we visited.

After a while, he coughed impatiently by my side. "Son, you think you're ready to go back to work yet?"

I shrugged. "Dunno."

Could I concentrate on work right now? Every little thing reminded me of my old life; the one Rebecca was drawing me away from in slow, measured steps. I almost always popped by Carlie's on the way to the office and then again on the way back home. The thought of driving so close to her place tore me up. The 'what-ifs' resurfaced. What if I was to accidentally see her? Would it spark her emotions again, or purely dampen mine until there was nothing left to mourn?

"I don't want you to make a mess of it after all I did to get you in with the firm in the first place," he continued. "They're a good solid workplace and Terry says you do well there? Think of all the time studying and working through the apprentice."

"So?" What did I go to work for? To design the dream home that would never be good enough for her. To get the BMW so I could compete with Cullens' fleet of vehicles. Bella and Edward obviously hadn't returned home again otherwise Edward would have heard the whole story in Carlie's thoughts and encouraged her to put things right. Or maybe he had. Maybe he was happy that this had happened?

"So don't throw everything you worked to build over this."

"Over what, dad? Over Carlie? Over the dis-imprinting?" Over the most traumatic event of my whole life. "I know what you think of her but I also think that given the circumstances, I've earned myself the right to wallow for just a little longer, don't you?"

He paused, affronted by my outburst. "And the pack? You're leaving them too?"

"They've survived without me before."

"But you're the Alpha, Jacob. You're the strongest one. Your lineage is what makes you who you are. If your grandfather could see you now, he wouldn't recognize you."

I turned to him, expression soured. "What do you want from me?!"

"I want my boy back," he said.

And I wanted _her_ back. But we don't always get what we want. What I wanted was a gift of time travel, to reverse that dreadful night at Sue's, where I'd quit getting stirred up about stupid, stupid prom, then reaching out to her to prove it wasn't really an issue. She had fears that she'd attack someone and I was scared she'd choose a different date. How senseless could I really be?

She'd cried out for my help, and I had crumbled. Change of tack; I'd have to prove to Carlie that I am worthy and that didn't mean hiding any longer.


	31. Chapter 31 - Carlie

Chapter Thirty-One: Carlie

I watched the rise and fall of Nahuel's sleeping chest on the far side of the cavern. His face was serene in slumber, which was probably the only time he truly relaxed. He slept differently to Jacob, much quieter and neater with his arms crossed over his torso. I willed myself not to compare them. I'd come all this way to find someone like me yet Nahuel was no saint. Who was I kidding; I'd have to find a better role model than that. His temperament was totally unstable. By comparison Jake was so normal, so easy to get on with. He always had a smile and a comment to rouse me from any dull moment, yet Nahuel's protracted, aggrieved silences left so much to be said. A lack of trust I deduced, but what could I expect from a guy I'd met only a few days ago. Somehow our time apart had put things in perspective. Jacob was so grounded and reliable; all those things I'd taken for granted.

The more I tried not to, the quicker my thoughts flew back to Jacob. What was he doing? Where would he be? Would he be thinking of me?

I watched the waterfall for a few minutes weighing up how to get out. Although I'd done it once before, it was still a little intimidating.

"Morning," Nahuel said. I hadn't noticed him wake and it startled me. He stood up and started to comb his fingers through slightly kinked hair, Other than it being slightly ruffled, he looked as he had last night.

"Um, I was just going to see where my parents are," I said, backing away from Nahuel towards the wall of water.

"Are you okay?" He said. Another strangely observant comment. Maybe his frozen facade was starting to thaw.

"Yeah of course," I said, quickly, and turned. I was about to jump when I felt his hand touch my arm.

"About last night," he said, "I wasn't entirely honest with you."

I found my parents with Huilen, not far from the waterfall. Bella was perched on the water's edge, bending over a huge bowl. She alternated between shaking it and peering down at its peculiar contents with fascination. They stopped to look up at me as I approached, dripping wet from the waterfall.

"Morning Carlie." It was Huilen, and the first time she had spoken to me. I smiled back at her dull red eyes. They seemed friendly enough.

Beside her Bella shook the bowl once more and plucked several tiny sparkling pieces that had been submerged between the layers of water and silt.

"Gold? Very nice," I said.

"These lands are rich," Huilen said. "We source them and melt them into bullions, in our spare time."

"Sounds like you are rich then, not the lands," I said, and she smiled a wide beam that seemed to take over her small, round face.

Every coven seemed to have their own way of keeping self-sufficient. We had Alice, every stockbroker's favorite client. They had gold, and a total lack of materialistic items, which gave them little reason to use it.

Huilen used my arrival as an excuse to leave, which suited me fine. I was grateful of the privacy. She bounced high into the air like a fairy and an instant later she vanished into the waterfall.

"Mom, dad," I said. "Nahuel is rearing an army."

Bella smirked. "Tell me something I don't know. They're a protective bunch."

"Did you know they plan to take out the Volturi?" I said. "By luring them here."

This time she nearly dropped her bowl, and then jumped to her feet. "That's what they're training for?" Her eyes went wide. "We must leave immediately. We can't stay here, right in the path of the Volturi. Especially when Cruz can block my shield."

"I think that he can turn that off, now we're all friends," I said.

"It's okay, love," Edward said, resting his hand on her shoulder.

"But you heard Nahuel say how much the Volturi want Zafrina. She glared at Edward. "I will not be embroiled in a Volturi war, not again, and not with Nessie."

Edward looked perplexed but stayed silent. "What did Nahuel tell you?" He said.

"He said that he is the secret weapon."

Confusion spread like wildfire across my mother's face. "They wouldn't stand a chance," she said. "He doesn't even have a gift."

"He doesn't need a gift. Apparently a shaman prophesied that all he needs is a witch."

Then they both gawped.

"So you're saying there is a prophecy that a half-blood male will somehow amass the power to bring down the Volturi?" Bella said, walking briskly towards the shabono.

"He didn't say Volturi exactly. He used the word underlife? I thought that was the same thing?" I said.

"That has room for interpretation," Edward said. "We traditionally use the word underlife to represent the Volturi because their palace in Volterra is mostly underground. It's become a term by referral. But it never used to be. If the prophecy is old, the term may not have been adopted. He could be referring to the whole race of vampires? Nahuel could be attempting annihilation of us all under the pretense of taking out the Volturi?"

"Surely not?" Bella said. "He's got some anger running through his veins, but surely he's not given up completely. And even if he did, would a spell and a witch be able to do such a thing?" She looked up to Edward.

"Maybe the spell would freeze all the vampires in the world like Alec does?" I added.

"When I get close enough to Cruz, I'll try and listen for it," Edward said, "but without asking him outright it won't be that easy. I can't believe they kept something this big from me."

We walked on.

"Did you find anything out about those tree markings?" I said after some time.

They both shrugged. "We won't know until we get home and compare them," Bella said, looking up at Edward as we walked, "but they definitely look vampire-made. Few could create identical lines with such perfect precision."

"I'll ask Zafrina when we get there," I said.

"You can ask her now," said Edward, slowing. He turned to the sound of rushing leaves through the trees.

"There you are," Zafrina said from across a small clearing of trees. "I've got something to show you, Carlie." She laughed and looked to the trees. I followed her gaze to a rustling from the southern side of the foliage where the leaves spilt over the branches and tumbled along the rustic ground. The stark sunlight cast strong shadows, slightly obscuring my view. But no angle of sunlight would have cast doubt on the figure that emerged from the undergrowth.

Jacob.

I froze as he walked towards me, a sheepish grin across his face. He dragged his feet slightly as he moved. He was wearing the same patterned T-shirt from the night at the Reservation. He was so poorly dressed for the jungle, with his flip-flops and dirty jeans. How was it possible he'd found me?

"Carlie, I miss you," he said, reaching out to me as he approached. He pulled his legs towards me with steel edged determination, while I quivered into a nervous wreck, watching him approach. "I'm sorry," he said, his eyes brimming with candor.

I couldn't control the tears that welled up, but I didn't advance.

Bella wrapped her arms around me. "What's the matter Carlie? What's wrong?" she said softly into my ear.

"It's him," I whispered, not taking my eyes off Jacob. His arms, so strong and sculpted, rose towards me, reaching out for the embrace I'd yearned for.

I choked but couldn't speak. How had he found me? He must have realized that what he saw couldn't be true. I stared at him, letting the tears trickle down my face.

"Who?" Bella said, beside me, sparking an unsettling realization.

"Enough Zafrina," Edward said, crisply, confirming it.

Before Jacob could advance any further the image of him started to buzz and then disappeared completely before my eyes. Instead it was Zafrina I saw running towards me through the undergrowth, with Senna and Kachiri behind.

I broke down in front of them; a wired ball of mess all tangled up and ready to explode.

"I'm so sorry Carlie," Zafrina said. "I didn't mean to upset you. I thought it would make you happy?"

Bella looked between us in confusion.

"It was Jacob," Edward whispered into Bella's ear. "Zafrina made him appear in front of her."

I fiercely wiped the tears from my face as Bella squeezed me tighter. "Come on, Carlie, it's nothing, you don't need to get yourself worked up over a silly illusion. You'll see him soon enough."

"I'm so sorry," Zafrina repeated, taking my hands in hers.

"It's fine, it's nothing," I said, knowing none of them would believe me. I didn't realize how tight Zafrina's gripped mine until I tried to pull away. "It just caught me off guard, that's all." I wriggled free of her clutches and headed away from them to a small brook, squatting to splash some fresh cold water over my face. In my reflection, I began to think of Forks again; from the river that ran past our cottage. The river I'd take it in turns to wade and then jump over, with Jake, on a hot summer's day.

Edward waited a few moments before coming to sit beside me. Behind me quiet mutters reduced to nothing but the sounds of the forest. I didn't see where the others went and didn't turn to find out. He sat on the edge of the brook, pulled his trousers up to his knees and studied the water as it broke around his toes.

"I know you don't want to discuss it," he said, after a moment. "But I can't help but hear all the turmoil that Jacob is putting you through. What happened Nes? What's brought all this up?"

"I thought you would know by now?"

He smiled showing no teeth. The kind of embarrassed '_I shouldn't have been listening_' smile that I'd seen before. I couldn't blame him. Bella's thoughts were somehow protected, which left only mine to listen to relentlessly for days upon end.

"I don't think Jacob and I are… you know, imprinted anymore," I said, looking up at him through glassy eyes. I rested my head on his shoulder and let another tear dribble down my face. "We had a fight, well kind of fight, it's not easy to explain. I said some things… I showed him some things… and we haven't spoken since." Slowly I pressed my hand to his.

He stayed silent for a moment as he watched Jacob's reaction when he dropped me off at the house that fateful night. There was no need to re-live it all, just a snippet of Jacob's repulsion, and that was enough.

"Well maybe it's time to go home and sort it out?" He said.

I nodded, biting my lip.

"But you've only just got here?" Nahuel uttered from within the cavern. Protracted good-byes were not my strong point, and I searched clumsily for my few belongings to distract myself from the conversation.

"Carlie shouldn't really miss any more school," Edward added.

"I'm sorry, it's my fault isn't it," he said. I stopped and looked up at him. He genuinely seemed remorseful.

"You were the perfect host, Nahuel," Bella purred.

"Friends so rarely come to visit me. I should have made more of an effort."

"You came out last night," I said, offering eye contact with him for the first time. The same stare ensued between us; Nahuel not blinking, and me too proud to turn away.

"Nahuel, you said yourself you have an army waiting for them and you've got a power all on your own. I don't think you need to hide anymore." I tried to offer some comfort in my words but he seemed hurt by the accusation and annoyed I'd announced it out loud.

"I am mortal. Without the witch I cannot take the risks that the others can," he snapped back.

"So am I, and I'm fine."

"It's not the same."

"So, come back to Forks with us. You'll be fine there. You may even live a little," I dared.

He paused, as if calculating such a journey in his head.

"It's not such a bad idea Nahuel," Huilen offered from the corner. "The Volturi are petrified of the Cullens. It would probably be a safe place to hide until we find the witch."

_Oh no, I didn't mean that. Who knows how long until they find a witch? He could stay for months or even years! _The corners of Edward's lips curled up.

"You're more than welcome to come back with us Nahuel. I'm sure Carlisle and the others would be delighted for you to stay," Edward said.

Nahuel thought for slightly longer, while we waited in patience. Then he looked up at me with a refreshed confidence.

"Okay," was all he replied.

Senna, Kachiri and Zafrina were waiting on the riverbank when we left the cave. When she saw me, Zafrina zipped over first, still clearly remorsed by what she had done.

"You're going aren't you?" she said. I nodded and took her hand. I sent an image of our stay - the happy parts - through to her. She smiled then leaned over to hug me.

"I know what you're feeling," she whispered into my ear. "It's strange to be away from him..."

I blushed and she recoiled from me instantly. It did feel strange but not completely in the way she meant. I couldn't explain my outburst earlier, nor could I shake the fear of him and what he did that night in grasping my memories.

"What if he won't speak to me when I return?" I whispered back. "What if he doesn't welcome me with open arms like you suggested before?"

"Then he is not worthy of you after all and your deepest instinct was indeed correct, young one."


	32. Chapter 32 - Benjamin

Chapter Thirty-Two: Benjamin

Having driven through the night, I arrived back in Biloxi early on Friday morning to a warm sun and a fresh breeze. The barometer beside the back door read seventy eight degrees although in my leather jacket it felt warmer than that. My mother made no secret of her happiness, running at me with a mug of coffee in her hands, only to spill the thing all over the lino floor while squeezing me in a bear-hug that knocked the wind right out of my sails.

My father's reaction was slightly different. He looked up from his paper, folded it, then slapped it against the table hard enough to prize my mother and I apart. Then he pushed his chair back, placed his glasses into his breast pocket and left the room. That was the thing about my father. He never needed to resort to sharp words to convey his thoughts; his actions said it all.

As a trainee teacher, I was working almost pro bono for the local school. Expenses were reclaimable, and I was rewarded with credits towards my qualification, which meant that so far in my life I'd achieved precisely nothing. With the time scales I was working within, no amount of hard work would help. I needed more than a job, I needed a miracle. And with that in mind, it was my greatest pleasure to tell the headmistress, Mrs Klaussman that I wouldn't be returning to school after my leave of absence to see out the end of term. She didn't seem that concerned either; a unsubtle reminder that perhaps I was pursuing the wrong career path anyway.

And so I moped around the house, re-enacting my final year in high school with mindless television watching and boredom eating, although without smoking pot; my dreams were lucid enough.

"Why don't you speak to him?" My mother said, coming into the sitting room at the back of the house and closing the door behind her.

"Why don't we ever change that bulb?" I said, referring to the one above her head. In the vision of my death or 'conversion' as Alice had so delicately put it, that bulb had blown, so the incessant flickering that was irritating me now could be avoided. She lingered there for a moment, then moved over to the french doors that overlooked the yard. When she opened them I saw the pond that I'd spent ages designing and creating a few summers ago. Although now all that was left was a mountain of mildew covered leaves that had bunged the small fountain pump up.

"He's upset," she said.

"Maybe it's not the bulb. A bulb wouldn't flicker. It would just blow. Maybe it's the connection?"

"I said your father is upset."

"I noticed," I said, not looking up.

"I don't think you understand why."

"So tell me." I didn't look away from the television.

"It worries me more that you don't seem to care why?"

He'd spent years trying to mould me into a career guy with a mortgage and aspirations to succeed, and that's perhaps how I looked in my suit on the way to work each day, but I'd blown my cover the instant I'd called in sick and set sail to Forks. And in his eyes I'd failed.

I pressed mute and looked up at her. "I confided in you. I thought you would help me. When I came to you about the premonitions I thought you would at least try to understand me even if you didn't believe me, but you didn't keep your promise, you ran straight back to him and told him everything then continued to make a mockery of me by pretending I had an illness or something."

"But darling, I thought you needed some... help."

"Thought? Or think?"

She looked away towards the french doors.

"I knew he wouldn't understand but I thought you would at least try," I continued. "You saw the disgust on his face. He think's I'm crazy, but the funny thing is, I don't think Aunt Mary was, and I sure as hell don't think I am. I think there's more to it than regular people are seeing and now I've seen a glimpse of it, I can't focus my attentions on all these benevolent day-to-day activities that I used to. I'm scared of what's about to happen to me and I don't know what else to do to protect myself."

When I looked back at my mother she was trembling. "Mom?"

"It's like your eighteenth birthday all over again. You were so convinced that the venue would have lost your reservation and you made me call them every night that week to check."

"That's hardly the same thing."

She shook her head and looked at me with eyes as wide as a full moon. "Maybe Dr Cronter will be able to advise us further."

"I don't need to see Dr Cronter again. This is hardly the same as my car crash."

"No you're right. At least then he said you were curable because there was a trigger to your pain. He said having a trigger is a good thing."

"There is a trigger. You just don't want to believe it."

"Of course I don't. You're telling me that you're going to be murdered in a few months. How many mothers could bear to hear that?"

"September." There I said it, and it didn't make me feel any better.

"Do you feel the anxiety now?" She said.

"I'm not going to kill myself mom."

She shook her head. "Grandma always said you were a gentle child. I didn't know what she meant. I liked to think you were just shy, but I didn't realize the inner turmoil you must be suffering on a daily basis. Maybe we should have sent you to a smaller school. Maybe boys only."

"For real?"

She looked up at me silently, reverently. "Just tell me what you need and I'll help."

That's when I saw the great flashing light. I squinted then shut my eyes again to see more. I was in a room, white washed walls, pictures in plain black frames with ivory mounts, then the light. In the centre I saw Alice. The only one that actually understood me. It was only for a fraction of a second, like a strobe flash, but her face was laced with horror. Beside her was Carlie, or Snow White as I like to refer to her as, deep in concentration, wearing a smug grin.

"Darling? Can you hear me?"

"Mom, something's happening."

She jumped up from the sofa but I was already out the door. "I'll call you on the way," I shouted over my shoulder, tucking her credit card from the kitchen countertop into my back pocket. "I'll pay you back for the gas."

I didn't hear her response if there was one. Instead I started tapping in numbers into my cell as I pulled the car out of the drive. My heart was beating like the clappers, and my adrenaline pumping.

"Alice, it's not that I forgive you or want to meet up or anything, but something terrible is about to happen," I rushed into the handset.

I didn't want to go back to Forks. I didn't even want to protect her, but when I saw her going up in smoke I couldn't help myself. She didn't deserve to die; not like this.

I closed my eyes and saw the bright light again. It was terrifying. Alice had looked out for this girl. She protected her and worried for her; I couldn't stand back and watch Carlie kill her.


	33. Chapter 33 - Jacob

Chapter Thirty-Three: Jacob

It was not just the lack of scent, which convinced me that Carlie had not returned to her cottage in days. It was still black and empty, and her bedroom curtains remained pulled back in the same position. I stole a look through her window. The same well-worn jeans I recognized so well lay crumpled across the floor. It was the same as yesterday, and the day before that. Even so, I approached the place as quietly as I could with a long sharp knife in my hand.

When I got to the door, it too seemed untouched. Perhaps she'd moved back into the main house? Although I couldn't imagine why. I knew she had not been in school thanks to a chance meeting with Jaynie Lewis. Yet she knew little else.

_Carlie, where are you?_

I crouched down to the floor with my face pressed into the dirt. From there I drew level with the small slit beneath the front door and delicately started teasing my knife through the gap. It wasn't much to work with but I edged the flat of the blade through and tried to fumble for the letter I'd posted there only days before.

I held my breath as the blade caught the corner of the crisp white envelope. It confirmed my suspicions; she had not returned. The envelope pulled slightly but didn't come sliding back as I'd hoped. It was just an inch too far in. Three more attempts and I sat back on my knees, frustrated with the whole situation. I don't know why I was letting it get to me but Carlie's silence was slowly driving me insane. While she didn't deserve to know my feelings that I'd laid bare, the letter signified only one thing. Defeat. And I wasn't ready for that yet. Maybe the visions were not true. Maybe they were distorted. What a fool I would be not to find out. I threw the blade to the floor and thumped the door hard. It didn't make me feel any better about the whole intangible mess but to my surprise the door creaked open slightly. I looked up at the handle and turned it slowly. It came free with ease and swung round.

There on the floor in the forefront of the hallway was my unopened letter. I snatched it up and pulled the door shut before disappearing back into the undergrowth as fast as I could.

I'd tried to let go but this just wasn't the right way.

Before I reached even the boundary of the estate, the letter was scattered into a thousand tiny pieces across the forest.

That made me feel better, although now an itch had started a good inch below my skin, directly related to the whereabouts of Carlie Cullen. If she wasn't in her cottage, and hadn't attended school, then my guess was, she wouldn't be in the main residence either. It was not sunny enough to justify a fortnights absence from school on actual vampire grounds, too long to be a hunt, even if they had gorged themselves senseless, which meant only one thing… that she had gone.

Dartmouth?

Potentially. If Bella and Edward hadn't returned that is, and the chances of that ran high. Then a menacing thought took hold of me, chilling me to my core. What if they'd cleared out, the whole lot of them, upped and disappeared to start again somewhere else fresh.

Is that what I'd driven them to do?

I skirted round the perimeter and made my way up to the road by the entrance to their drive. There was rarely much traffic and today was no different. There were a bundle of scents that ran along the driveway, but not hers. I'd have to get a closer look and that meant risking the other's seeing me, if they were still here. It was a risk I had to take.


	34. Chapter 34 - Carlie

Chapter Thirty-Four: Carlie

"Welcome home," Esme said, as we entered the main house. Her golden eyes perched comfortably over the top of a novel. She smiled warmly at us and jumped to her feet.

We were a disheveled gaggle; our fresh complexions betrayed by our stained and worn clothes. Even if our rucksacks had made it to the great shabono with us, three passports wouldn't have been enough to smuggle Nahuel across the United States border legally, and so we had run home part-way on foot.

"How was the trip?" Esme said, approaching Nahuel with new clothes as the door clunked shut behind us.

"We made good time, I think," Nahuel replied. Trust him to turn it into some kind of personal achievement. We had run for close to a hundred miles across the open wilderness before Nahuel had even slowed his pace. Often I had caught his eyes darting back and forth, never at rest, and when we stopped, they fell upon me.

Nahuel scanned the room with angst, before meeting Esme's gaze.

"Thank you." He took the clothes bowing his head in reverence, then backed away until he was by my side. A new pair of slacks and a crisp white shirt.

"Well, this is a sight in Forks." It was Carlisle, his voice carrying from the landing as he descended the stairs. "You must be tired after your journey?"

"I'm fine, thanks," Nahuel replied.

"Come in, sit down, make yourself comfortable."

"I am comfortable, thank you Carlisle." But he didn't sit down. I collapsed onto the couch not expecting my limbs to feel so heavy. The thick cushions fluffed up around me as I sank in.

"And I see you have taken care of my family." I met Carlisle's warm glance as it swept upon me. It was nice to finally be home. Carlisle approached Edward who lingered in the hallway, putting his hands to Edwards shoulders in greeting. They exchanged a protracted glance and a few nods before Carlisle moved to hug Bella.

"So Nahuel, you hunted on your way over?" Carlisle was careful not to mention humans in his choice of phrase, and Nahuel equally returned the gesture. They discussed it quietly in the corner; what Carlisle expected of Nahuel and the Treaty again. In Forks, we never got away from that Treaty. Stray vampires were the property of the wolves. Our guests? I suspected that foul-play under our authority reflected badly on us all, and because of that, Carlisle was very exact in his instructions.

Maybe I'd been naïve but I'd half hoped Jacob would be here when we got back. Everything had its place in the house but yet somehow it seemed empty without him.

"They're home!" It was Rosalie. She ran at me with Emmett and Jasper in pursuit, bursting through the garage doors with all the fizz of a soda can. In the frenzy I saw a split-second hesitation from Rosalie before she embraced me, her attention stolen by the stranger in her midst. It was enough for the others to catch up with her, stopping just short of knocking me over.

Then they all started firing questions at once.

"Give her a break," Edward said, as their excitement get the better of me and their queries danced around my head.

"Has J been over?" I said.

"Not since you left," Rosalie said. "But tell us about the Amazon - what did you hunt while you were there?"

"But has he not even tried to get in touch?" I said.

They shook their heads inattentively. So he had neither visited nor made contact with them in my absence. Did he even know I went away? Though I would not admit it out loud, it saddened me in a way I couldn't quantify. I had grown so accustomed to his company, and though we had left on bad terms, I half hoped he would want to salvage our friendship if nothing else.

"Forget about him for now, Carlie, tell us about the Amazon?" Emmett said. He gestured over to where Nahuel stood motionless by the window, eyeing us with peculiarity. Why didn't they just ask him?

"They want to see it," Edward said from the foyer. I looked at their grinning faces. Sending a vision to all of them at once was not something I'd tried before but they all seemed so eager, so intrigued. I pulled all their hands in, positioning them one on top of the other like a pre-match team-rally at the soccer. Rosalie, Emmett, Carlisle, Jasper and Esme layered their hands over mine and a hush fell on the room. It seemed that they were just as curious to see if it would work as I was. I started with the first image I saw of Nahuel; the very first time I laid eyes upon him, and sent it down my arm. No spark. No tingle. No echo. Nothing. Wierd.

"Take you time, sweetheart," Esme said. She eyed me carefully but then closed her eyes like the others and waited patiently.

Perturbed, I re-focused on the memory, like a parcel in my brain, and tried to inflate it. I layered the words we had spoken, the fear I had felt, the strange dark cave we inhabited, all the sounds, feelings and textures I recalled so vividly. The rush of the water, the stagnant smell of the soft porous rock, everything. The memory swelled absorbing the detail like a sponge. Then I began my second attempt.

The others remained motionless.

I pulled the memory back, creating what could only be described as a boulder on a spring. It would need as much force as I could muster to split five ways. Then a flash of Jacob's face crept into my mind. I'm not sure where it came from, but somewhere deep in the forest I could imagine him there like all those times before when he'd come to visit. And the emotion from just imagining his face catapulted with my memories down my arm.

Before the vision hit, Alice burst through the front door of the house.

She screamed, "STOP," at the top of her voice, but it was too late.

A brilliant white flash - so bright that it drew my breath - emanated from our hands, blinding the room and the others from me.

The sound followed. It was like a thunderstorm in the distance; at first a low, deep rumbling that grew louder and louder until we seemed to be upon it. Then came the explosion, and with it a force so strong that it whipped me clean off my feet and threw me backwards like I'd just been punched. A shattering sound tickled the air with an octave of unwieldy notes; great splinters of glass flying out and I brought my hands up around my face.

Then I hit something hard.

My body reverberated continuing to sink several inches into the plaster as the wall absorbed my flight. It took several milleseconds before I stopped completely. The light that had blinded me turned into a dry haze that filled the air.

Then everything was still.

"Mom?" I called out.

Nothing.

"Alice? Jasper?... Daddy?"

No echo, nor any reply. The room was gone and so were its inhabitants.


	35. Chapter 35 - Carlie

Chapter Thirty-Five: Carlie

I pulled myself out of my cavity to assess the damage. Empty metal window frames bordered the room; standing bent and broken like old frail men. In the center lay a mountain of fresh broken plasterboard, shards of glass and all our homely possessions. The remains of old book covers lay scattered on top of the rubble. Soil littered the area from where the yucca tree stood poking out of the mess. Everything was half buried, half broken, ashen and scarred.

"Emmett? Rosalie?"

The bare walls of the hallway now bore only skeleton steps, indented plasterboard and bare brick. Smashed frames and torn oiled canvas adorned the floor. What had I done?

"Carlisle? Esme?"

Muffled voices came back this time.

Then I saw a hand protrude from the wreckage, then another beside it. They scurried to reach the surface. A few seconds later and I saw my father's face, full of determination as he clambered out of the rubble. Other hands started to follow, and one by one they emerged from the ground like badgers from their setts.

Edward locked onto something and lurched towards it.

"She's under here," he said, gesturing to the piano. One by one the others started to cluster round as they unearthed themselves from the mess; Carlisle, Jasper, Rosalie, Alice and Esme. Edward catapulted the piano into the air, sending it crashing to the far side of the room. He leaned into the well. Bella's arm came into view, taking his hand in hers. She grinned in embarrassment as he lifted her graciously from the hole.

"I could have done it without you," she said, leaning towards Edward.

"Thanks would have been sufficient," he replied.

"Thank you Edward." She kissed his cheek and wrapped her arm around him.

"What. Was. That?" An astonished voice said, from out of the debris. It was Emmett with the grand piano in his arms. He flicked it to the floor with disgust; its mahogany spine splintered upon impact.

"What just happened?" Rosalie asked; looking at me before turning to Alice's worried looking face.

"I saw the light, but I couldn't get here in time," Alice said.

"I have never seen anything like it before," Carlisle said.

Then, one by one, they all looked to me.

"She's a bomb." It was Rosalie with a healthy level of disgust across her face.

"A secret weapon more like," added Jasper with intrigue. "The house imploded on us," he said with reverence. "How many vampires do you know can do that?"

"It didn't hurt you?" Carlisle furthered.

"No, I feel fine," I replied, feeling the hot flush of my cheeks. "But I wasn't buried, I hit the wall." I turned to show them the body shape than had indented into the far elevation. Bella gasped.

"Where's Nahuel?" I asked, panning around the room. He was the only one who hadn't dug himself out. I listened for the familiar heartbeat to match my own but heard nothing even vaguely recognizable.

"It's okay, I can hear him," Edward said.

"That's not possible, I can't hear his heartbeat," I blurted, in confusion.

"Well he's definitely okay," Edward replied coolly. "Although you're not going to want to hear what he's thinking right now." Somehow that was not a surprise. I'd probably earned myself a place on his list of targets next to the Volturi for this stunt.

I listened again. Maybe my hearing had been affected by the blast? But I knew Nahuel's heartbeat - I'd heard nothing but it's rhythmic patter for the past week. It was so strong and distinctive.

I pushed aside the low rumbling of car stereos and the roar of motor engines in the distance, focusing on the forest. Beneath the high pitched squawks and the rasps of the deer's antlers as they leapt and danced across the mountainsides, I heard a strange pummeling, racing at such a speed that surely his heart would burst.

"You hear it?" I asked, looking up to Carlisle. He tilted his head in the direction of the forest for a second.

"It's the fastest heartbeat that I've ever heard," Esme commented.

"He's lucky he's not completely human, that's all I can say," Carlisle added. "Go and find him, Edward, before he gives himself a heart attack."

"I'll come with," added Jasper, with a smirk. They set off into the forest, leaving the carnage behind them.

It was not until Nahuel had been whisked off upstairs that I fully breathed again. His face had portrayed horror. He had stared deep into my eyes with disgust as he walked by.

"You'll be safe in here," Jasper was re-assuring him, from somewhere upstairs.

I was mortified.

"That serves him right for our boat trip," Edward whispered in my ear. I forced a weak chuckle as I looked nervously at their faces assessing the damage. Each time I looked I noticed some other heart-wrenching object, which had been devastated by the blast. "It'll do no good just staring at it," Edward said, "lets go to the kitchen where we can at least think." He must have been sick of all their thoughts and for the first time ever, I was grateful that I couldn't hear them. I'd always been the special one, the mortal one. I'd never been the destroyer.

We trundled through to the kitchen in single file like a pack of first graders on a school trip. Rosalie and Emmett were whispering between them words that I didn't care to hear. No one else spoke until the sitting room was out of sight.

"Carlie, I want you to think back very carefully," Carlisle started, neither blaming nor accusing. "What did you feel immediately before it happened?"

"Um, I don't know. All I could think about was using as much power as possible to split my vision five ways." I looked up at their expectant faces in trepidation.

"How did you do that?" Edward asked, trying to concentrate on me. His face looked fraught like he was trying to drown out their thoughts and focus in on mine.

"I did what we've practiced before. First the image, then I added the sound, colors, feelings, anything I could think of to pad it out, because on its own the image didn't work, it wasn't getting through."

"But what happened was not merely the result of channeling a visualization, it had somehow been transferred to a completely different state," Carlisle mused.

"Like what, a different power source?" Edward responded.

"A different power altogether?" Carlisle answered.

"Er, did none of you pay attention in physics?" It was Rosalie. Only Edward looked up to see her finish her sentence. "It was an electromagnetic pulse."

That caught my attention. "A what?"

"You know, like in the Matrix," she added.

I rolled my eyes, before looking back to Carlisle and Edward; but to my surprise, they actually seemed to be considering it.

"What does an electromagnetic pulse do?" Bella said, dubiously. The lines on her forehead dipped into a V in the center.

"It wipes everything electric out in the vicinity."

"We're not electric," Bella replied, pulling me in under her arm. I shot fear through my fingers into her mind.

"Well I'm sorry that they've not documented this on vampires before but I'm just saying what I know," Rosalie responded.

"And how does it work?" Esme said.

"It's the process of converting a whole mass of energy into a kinetic force. When you mix the elements with enough power you can create an explosion," Rose continued.

Everyone stared at her in wonder.

"Could it have affected our powers?" Alice asked. "You know just after it happened, I felt nothing. I couldn't see anything for the future. I thought I was dead!" She shuddered, and Jasper looped his arms around her waist from behind.

"How long did that last for?" Carlisle said, between furrowed brows.

"I don't know. As soon as I found I could move, I didn't waste any time trying to see my future."

"That's why I couldn't hear anything," Edward interjected. "I thought you had all been knocked out or something. It was the strangest silence I've ever heard. Peaceful for once." He smirked. "And then I heard Bella—."

"You heard me?"

"How do you think I knew where to find you?" He grinned.

"I don't know," she replied, "I never thought about it."

"It was only for a split second. I thought you pulled your shield off on purpose so I'd know where to find you?"

Bella frowned. She went quiet for a couple of seconds, concentrating hard it seemed.

After a few moments she said, "well its back now," with relief.

"What does it mean?" I said. "What's happening to me?" My tone raised and I fought to stay calm.

"We'll get to the bottom of it Carlie, don't you worry," Edward said.

I had lost control with Jacob, and he'd been hurt, and now I'd done it again and Nahuel was hurt; well psychologically at least. I could have harmed all of them and I didn't even know how to stop it. A lump formed in my throat.

"I'm gonna go," I said, feeling dangerously emotional. I caught Carlisle's eye before I went, causing me to mutter, "I'm sorry," under my breath. In fact I felt especially sorry for Esme. She would never for one moment admit it but this was the home she had created so lovingly and I had ripped it apart. They all watched as I exited through a frame where a windowpane once hung.

"Wait for me," Bella called out from behind me before I'd even reached the silver birches. I tried to ignore her, walking on stubbornly into the woods but she caught up in seconds.

"Please don't be upset, my Nessie... my Carlie," she started as we waded into the foliage. It was enough to set me off. The tears I'd held back so well now ran down my cheeks.

"Look what I've done." I bashed the stray leaves as we walked.

"It's nothing that can't be fixed and you know it. No one is blaming you. They would never do that because it wasn't your fault. You didn't even know you could do it."

"I'm sure Nahuel blames me. The whole way back I'd told him he'd be safe here."

"Oh he's been around long enough to know better. I'm sure he'll be over it by morning." Her words were of little comfort. "You know it only makes you even more special and even more unique," she said. "You have so much power and you are still discovering it."

"I'm losing control of it, more like."

"No, you're not."

"I am. That's why Jacob hates me."

"He could never hate you?" She looked so certain when she spoke. "You are everything to him."

"Then why has he not been round in my absence?" I said. "Why has he not even called?" Her face remained motionless but I continued regardless. "You have never asked me why I was so determined to go off to the Amazon in the first place."

"You were never ready to tell me."

"It was because of J… something happened that night I went to Sue's." I walked faster not daring to look her in the eye but she pulled my arm, stopping me dead in my tracks, pulling her face directly opposite mine.

"What. Did. He. Do?" she said, with a fresh menace in her voice. The tip of her canines flashed from the corner of her mouth.

"No, nothing like that," I added briskly, "it was weird. Well, I didn't mean for anything to happen."

"Like what?" She pushed, still stern.

"I tried to send him a vision but it didn't work. Well it did work but it didn't stop when I wanted it too. It was like he somehow took control of me and started to sap the information that he wanted to see. He froze me out. And what he saw wasn't even the truth. Feelings that I had maybe considered for a millisecond, yet he saw them and somehow contorted them into lies." I searched her face for some sort of indication of what she was thinking.

"That makes sense," she answered in a small voice. "If you two are as connected as they say you are, he somehow went into your thoughts the same way you send them out?" She went quiet for a second. "What did he see anyway?"

I swallowed. The lump in my throat wouldn't budge.

"It doesn't matter." She didn't push me but it was the very thought that had haunted me for the past two weeks. "He saw me with someone else... maybe a half-blood but I think it was actually a human... and we had human babies! He was so mad he couldn't even look at me."

She paused then her face cracked into a smile.

"You mean to tell me that Jacob Black is mad over some thoughts in your head?"

I nodded. Why was she grinning?

"It's not funny, I've been beside myself over all of this."

Her grin widened into a laugh. "Well you don't need to be distraught anymore," she replied. "First of all it serves him right for somehow delving into your thoughts, he had no right to. And secondly, unless you've become psychic, none of those images were real. You can only show visions of the past; actual events. Anything else is merely imagination. I can't believe he's jealous of your thoughts!" She laughed out loud.

"Mom!"

"No, I'm sorry, Jacob has a very over-protective character, always has been. He has to learn to deal with it."

"You think he'll forgive me?"

"Of course he will." She pushed me affectionately and it kick-started our walk again. "It's just a little blip that you need to put behind you, then things will go back to normal."

I walked on, weighing it up.

"I never wanted him to like me you know," I said, after a while. "In fact I sometimes wondered what it would be like if he'd never imprinted on me at all."

I could feel her gaze from beside me but she said nothing. I chewed over it some more. "But now he's gone… I miss him," I said. "Everything here reminds me of some memory I shared with him. Even the river; each time I jump it, I remember Jake carrying me on his back through it."

Bella laughed. "Yes I remember," she conceded. "And he thought he would be able to stand up even at the deepest part."

"In the middle of winter!" I laughed. I strode ahead through the bushes that stood proudly across the verge of the river. I let my foot dangle precariously over the edge of it, touching the icy water.

"Sounds like you need to call him," she said.

"I can't just ring him out of the blue. What happens if he doesn't like me anymore?"

"Like you anymore?" She retorted. "He loves you… he loves you more than anything in the whole world and nothing will come between that, especially not some stupid thoughts." The words melted me and for the first time it didn't make me shudder. "Sleep on it. Call him tomorrow," she said, "I'm confident that he'll see sense."


	36. Chapter 36 - Carlie

Chapter Thirty-Six: Carlie

"Here you go," I handed my sick note to Mr Latner, who brushed his hand over his moustache while he scanned it. A signed note from Dr Cullen rarely raised any eyebrows. On saying that I hadn't taken so much time off school before.

"Very good," he mumbled, "take a seat, Miss Cullen."

I smiled pleasantly at him before turning towards Ruth. She was practically hopping up and down for me to sit beside her; I'd heard her breathing from the front desk.

The class were gossiping in hushed tones about what illness I had caught and whether my weird family had it too. No one ever asked about them but the rumors obviously circulated regardless.

"So, where to this time?" she asked keenly, before I'd even sat down.

"South America."

She rocked unstably to the front of her seat.

"Whooh, you're family are soo cool! My mom would never take me out of school to go on holiday. You know they can fine Dr Cullen for that."

"Please don't tell anyone. I told Latner I got the flu."

"Of course. Did you stay at some big, fancy hotel on the coast?"

"Far from it. What did I miss anyway?" I added. No school gossip could compare with being attacked by strange vampires and blowing up the house.

"Nothing really." She hushed her voice. "Oh, Jaynie has been going on about a new infatuation—."

"Not James? Or Jackson, or Dexter? Or Jacob?" I added.

She paused suddenly looking a little sheepish. "You know, it's not my news to tell. Ask her at lunch."

I didn't ask Jaynie anything at lunch. She was off sick, which her younger brother, Max, said was a virus.

"Ugh, poor thing," Ruth mused, as we pulled up a seat in the canteen. "Do you think she'll be better for prom?"

Prom? I hadn't given prom a second thought for weeks.

"Oh no… it's this Thursday?"

"Yep." She stabbed her fork into a baked potato. "And guess what? I'm going with Harley." She raised her eyebrows. No surprise there. They'd walked to school together for the past five years. She talked me through how he had asked her, what lesson they were in, and what she would wear before reverting my heady stream of questions back at me.

"You know what, I don't know if I want to go," I said. "All these people… it's not really my thing."

"What are you talking about Carlie? Prom is 'everyone's thing'. Of course you're going, and if you refuse to take a guy then you're coming with me."

"What about Harley?"

"I'm sure he'd be happy with a girl on each arm," she giggled.

I returned from school puzzling over what I would say to Jacob when I called him. It caused knots in my stomach the size of grapefruits. I had left it so long, the fear of the phone call nearly outweighed my desire to speak to him. And to make matters worse, I had no one to go to stupid prom with.

Organized mess dominated the front of the white house, divided into piles of waste like small soldiers protecting their fort. I even felt pangs of guilt for the tattered remnants of books that hung pathetically on top of one of the piles. I hadn't expected to feel so lonely - at home there was always someone to talk to - but somehow their focus had been stolen by the chaos I'd caused, and that just compounded my frustration.

"Well if it isn't our little firecracker." Emmett whistled over at me, making me cringe. I glanced around identifying most of my family: mom, dad, Rosalie, Jasper and Emmett.

The progress they'd made inside was remarkable. The room was cleared, and the foundations of a new floor were already in place. Bella shot over to my side taking my arm.

"Has Nahuel not come out of his room yet?" I said.

She pulled a face and shook her head. "No, he only wants to see you."

He was the last person I wanted to speak to. Besides, I didn't need any more distractions, not when I was going to head back to the cottage to call Jacob.

Two deep breaths. Dial. No answer. I tried his father's house next and this time it rung twice, then there was a click as the receiver was lifted.

"Hello?" The voice was deeper than Jacob's and hoarse.

"Erm, hi, Billy." There was a silence on the other end of the phone. "It's me, Carlie."

"Ah Carlie, it's been a while since I've heard your voice." Was he happy to hear from me? I couldn't tell. I shifted uncomfortably coiling the phone cable around my fingers.

"I was wondering if Jacob was there?"

There was another pause.

"Billy?"

"Sorry, Carlie, I'm afraid he's not here. He's gone down to the beach."

"Will you tell him I called?"

"That I will, my dear." His attentions already seemed diverted from the call.

"Thanks Billy," I said, solemnly.

"You take care. Bye now." The phone clunked down. I stared at the shiny black receiver a little disappointed. Great. All the time I had spent building myself up for the phone call and he wasn't even there.

"There you are," an accented voice said.

Nahuel was by a small stream heading my way. With my thoughts still tangled up in the frustrations of Jacob, I couldn't be bothered with Nahuel's neurosis despite being weigh-laden with shame over the blast. I offered the kind of guilty smile for ignoring him before. If he was mad at me for the blast then he seemed to have gotten over it.

He took longer than I anticipated to reach me and I didn't make any attempt to greet him.

"Are you okay?" he said.

Why had Jake not picked up the phone?

I rested against a nearby tree and let my back drag along it until I was seated on the floor. He looked down at me wearing a mixture of suspense and confusion across his face. It didn't really matter what Nahuel thought of me. All I could think about was Jacob and it was starting to burn a hole in the pit of my stomach.

"What do you do if you think you've upset someone but it wasn't your fault?" I started, not looking up. "Do you say sorry anyway, just to make peace, or do you turn it on them, make it their fault?" I knew the answer, Jacob would never apologize.

"Should this person know better?" He replied, sliding down into the foliage next to me. We both leaned on the same tree trunk looking out into the forest in slightly different directions.

"Yes, he should know me well enough by now."

"Ah, so it's a guy." He paused in thought, seeming interested in my dilemma. "Well, it depends on whether you see a future to the friendship, if that is all it is?"

Yes I desperately wanted a future to the friendship but it confused me at the same time. If Jacob hadn't got inside my mind, maybe my feelings wouldn't have tangled up so.

"But what if you don't know whether it'll become something more, something romantic, because you upset that person, and they reacted badly." I just wanted to see Jacob's face again. I needed to know everything was okay.

"I think I understand—," he started to say.

"But what if it could have blossomed into something more than friendship but the incident wrecked everything."

He looked over at me but I pretended to ignore it, playing with the stitching that lined my jacket. Nahuel probably wasn't the best person to be discussing this with given I'd nearly killed him in the blast, but I didn't care. It weighed so heavily on my mind and I desperately didn't want to talk about what happened in the house. Why had Jacob not picked up the phone? Was he there, standing behind Billy, signaling that he wouldn't speak to me?

"No guy would hold an incident against you if they knew your true feelings," he said. "Honestly is stronger that you can imagine. If it was me, I would be happier to know that there was hope than to carry on blindly in the dark. Shutting someone out only makes things worse. My father did that to me for years, letting anger cultivate when he could have just told me the truth. Do you not think you owe it to this person to tell them how you really feel?"

"But say the feelings were never known. Say the girl was too scared to admit her feelings, even to herself."

"Are those feeling any clearer now?"

I paused, thinking back to Jacob's face when he read my thoughts. He was so shocked, so upset. The remorse I felt resurfaced in a fresh determination. I had lied to him in the first place; that's what had started it, and by running away, I'd only let it fester, prolonging Jacob's pain. And my pain.

"I think so," I replied, looking up at Nahuel, with renewed confidence.

"Then I would say that the girl needs to tell the guy how she really feels. He would be mad to not see the bigger picture." He turned to hold my gaze; another one of those intense stares. I nodded, self-righteously.

"I have to go," I rushed, rising to my feet.

It was a long time since I'd ran the journey to La Push and on foot it took a while crossing the open moors and the dense forest that sprawled right up to the cliffs. From the distance, the campfire flames danced as they soaked up the evening air. The blaze stretched high above a small gathering.

I tore along to the cliff edge, hearing the slow swell and crash of the tide as it fell lazily onto the rocks beneath me. After hurdling the Quillayute River, I followed a small trail, which veered off to the right of the main footpath, zigzagging down the rock face.

Only at the bottom where damp sand licked at the rocks, did I suddenly feel nervous. The familiar wolf smell oozed from the beach. I had grown so accustomed to it yet now it seemed so alien. Knots of anxiety began to gather in my stomach, fluttering like butterflies in a cage too small for them. As I approached the great boulder, which guarded the base of the path, I slowed, ducking down behind it.

I couldn't run up to him in front of everyone, yet it would be equally conspicuous to flag him down from the boulders at the base of the path where I stood.

I peeked over the top to look for Jacob. Instead I saw Leah and Seth chatting to some younger boys who seemed to have grown tremendously since I had last seen them. They ate burgers and chicken wings and Leah creased up with laughter at whatever it was they had just said. For once, Leah actually appeared to be enjoying herself.

An unfamiliar giggle caught my attention. It was not unknown to me but so strangely foreign to these surroundings that it took me a second to place it. It sounded like Jaynie?

My eyes followed the chime of her voice to a calm, sheltered stretch of water that lapped the rocky shore. She wore rubber boots with her jeans tucked in, and kicked at the water, which splayed at her feet. From where I crouched it looked like she was talking to a rock, which protruded from the water's edge.

They conversed for a while; a male voice low and unintelligible responding to her chatter. Jaynie was the opposite, loud and giggly. Then she stretched a dainty hand out towards the rock. Under the mottled light of the evening sun, a muscular arm reached back. I leaned forward to get a better view. She pulled at him, drawing his body into sight; tall, dark and tanned, a light T-shirt over broad shoulders and sculpted muscles, it couldn't be…. His striking russet skin came forth from the shadows.

Jacob.

Jaynie skipped along towards the bonfire, linking her fingers with his.

I stopped breathing, lurching back in angst. He had moved on, just like that. Less than two weeks had passed, and he was laughing hand in hand with her, Jaynie Lewis. The revolt felt unbearable. It was like the breath had been stolen from me. And as I fought to catch my breath, I watched his startling physique moving alongside her with such effortless ease.

And worse, he looked even more handsome, with an elegant ease about his demeanor as his fingers casually interlinked with hers. Jacob sniffed at the air in confusion; before letting Jaynie distract him with her playful prattle. Would he know I was here? I didn't wait to find out. I continued to edge away, silently at first until my ankle caught the edge of a pile of stones. Nearby thorns tried to prick at my legs. Then I turned and ran, speeding away as fast as was inhumanly possible.

I didn't dare look back until the fire was no more than a feather on the horizon, whishing in the breeze.


	37. Chapter 37 - Benjamin

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Benjamin

"Are you comfortable?" Alice said, again. Like a few cushions and a soft sofa would make me any less nervous. I was sitting with a vampire, about to ring a vampire.

I shook my head and passed her the phone. "I can't do it, I just can't. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize to me, Ben. I'm not the one who's gonna die or be changed."

Yes, those same words, again. 'I'm going to die.' Easy for her to say, seeing as she had defeated her grim reaper some time ago. If only there was a way to soften it. Perhaps by saying 'you might die' or 'but you won't feel a thing', would make it sound better. Actually, neither of those phrases did. It was still a horrible ending to my painfully short, uneventful life.

"Why can't you call him?" I said. "You know Felix. You've met him before. You'll be able to level with him more that I ever could."

"And spoil the only advantage you've got going for you right now?" She said, eyebrows arched above a serious frown. "Come on, we've practiced it. You introduce yourself, scare him a bit, and then drive it home."

"You don't think I should tell him I'll call him back later once he's thought about it?"

"Nope, he's a vampire, he can think on his feet. Besides you wouldn't have foreseen the Volturi palace phone number if you weren't meant to do something with it. Now is your chance."

I scrunched up my face. Alice was getting impatient with me. She thrust the phone in my hand with the telephone number already entered. I took a deep breath and pressed the call button.

There was a long pause, three long beeps, then the sound of a woman who was definitely not Italian; the one I have seen in a vision.

"Hello?" She said, her tone clipped. The same woman from my vision.

I introduced myself and asked to speak with Felix.

She was either trying to be unhelpful or struggling with the language barrier. Either way she sounded perplexed to transfer the call to the ballroom, and even more so to have to fetch Felix personally.

By the length of time she was gone, I guessed the palace was enormous.

"Why the ballroom?" I whispered to Alice.

"It's a separate line; the only extension that can't be interfered with or listened in on from other parts of the palace."

"Oh."

I didn't hear the woman again. Instead a deep male voice came on. Showtime.

"This is Felix," he said.

Petrified, I slammed the phone down.


	38. Chapter 38 - Carlie

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Carlie

"Are you not going to school then?" Alice said, the next morning.

I ignored her and reached into the kitchen cupboard by the fridge. There were a few tins, mere props for anyone who cared to check. Behind them was a sealed box of Cheerio's, which I reached for.

"What are you doing?" Alice looked over at me with an air of peculiarity.

"Nothing. Just wondering what's so special about all this food." I ripped open the top and smelt its musty contents.

"You're not going to eat those are you?" She wrinkled her nose.

"I might."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "You won't."

I picked a kernel out and examined it closely. "Jacob would eat it, yet he's not exactly human, and I bet_ he_ would too." I gestured to the bedroom Nahuel was sleeping in up the stairs.

"You don't need to eat a breakfast cereal to convince yourself that you're not human. Now is this about Jacob or Nahuel?"

"Shhh," I said, pointing upwards.

"So Nahuel then?"

"Neither." I shrugged. "But I don't want him to think we're talking about him. I'm just interested in the food, that's all."

I popped a small round shell into my mouth and chewed it around before forcing it down my throat. It itched a little but wasn't altogether unpleasant.

"Anyway," Alice said, dismissing my actions, "I was speaking to Rose, and she wants to do your make up, which is fine, so I'll do your hair."

I looked up at her in confusion.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten about your big night out," she toyed.

Prom. That again.

"I'm not going, so you don't need to bother." It wasn't even an issue. I couldn't think about prom because it made me think about _him_ and _he_ was history. The sooner I got that in my head, the better.

"That's not what I see," she said.

"Liar! You can't see anything. Besides I haven't had any intention of going since yesterday."

Her face broke into a huge pleading smile. "But why, Carlie, it's supposed to be fun."

"I'm not interested, that's all."

She whipped the cereal box from my hands and looked straight at me. "You know I do see something… it's hazy but it's got prom written all over it. I think you're destined to go."

I rolled my eyes and took the cereal box back, folding the lid closed, and placing it back behind the cans in the cupboard.

"…and I know someone who is so desperate to take you," she added.

I swept round to face her.

"Who—?" The sound of the phone ring jolted me but Alice's marble smooth face didn't flinch.

It buzzed twice from the receiver on the counter top while I waited for Alice's answer.

Had she seen Jacob?

It rung again.

"You've spoken to him?" I said, reaching out to grab the phone if nothing but to shut it off.

"Hello?" I said down the phone. I looked back at Alice for an answer but nearly dropped the phone at the figure by the door. "She'll call you back," I said quickly into the handset, then fumbled to get the phone back into its stand.

"You haven't left for school yet," he said, hovering by the door.

"Jacob," I whispered. His tall silhouette was statuesque in the hallway. A strong part of me wanted to touch him, just to confirm it was not one of Zafrina's visions sent to disturb me again. His height stretched up to the top of the doorframe. Hi shoulders still broad, with a shirt that fell from them in a perfect manikin kind of way.

"I'm going," Alice said, somewhere beside me, without so much as an excuse. I didn't know I'd stopped breathing until the door slammed shut some way away, jolting me back to the present. Jacob didn't advance like in the vision. He stayed by the front door, totally calm, with his hands in his pockets, watching me carefully. All the time I had taken to prepare myself for yesterday's phone call evaporated like vapor into thin air and I shifted uncomfortably as I struggled for words.

"My dad said you called yesterday?" Jacob said, although the words didn't fully register. All I could think of was his hand interlinked with Jaynie's on the beach, and that sparked such hurt and anger within.

"Yes." I paused thinking of something to say. There was an awkward silence between us.

"How have you been?" He said, his eyes closely monitoring mine. Such an empty question. Surely we'd got past the 'hi, how are you's' a long time ago. Did he really care how I'd been while he had spent his days frolicking with Jaynie on the shores of La Push? And if there was Jaynie, how many others could there have been?

"Fine," I replied, surprised as the venom in my tone.

"I wasn't sure whether your phone was working..."

Like he'd even tried it. Why call me - deranged, indecisive Carlie - when there's plenty of desperate Jaynie Lewis' ready to dote on you instead; far, less hassle, and nothing as sinister as a vampire.

"I didn't know if I should come, or.. " He pulled his hand through his hair, searching for words.

"Yeah, well you've been busy… plenty of people to see if you know what I mean."

He scowled. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing." I fell silent, cursing myself for not keeping my mouth shut. His prying eyes narrowed slightly.

"You were there last night, weren't you?" he started, incredulous. "I smelt you, I knew it was you." He paused as if perhaps trying to recall what it was that I'd have seen. "All this time I thought you'd gone away somewhere, out of state maybe. But you were here all this time." He shook his head. "Really you were just hiding from me?"

"Firstly, you're not so special that I'd actually hide from you, and secondly I was out of state." I cocked my chin up, defiantly.

"Oh, yeah, where?"

"South America," I said, shortly. "I went to stay with Nahuel."

A fresh cold silence fell between us as the words digested.

"The half-blood?" he uttered in disbelief.

"Uh huh."

"You went all that way… to South America, to see _him_."

_The guy from the vision, _I thought, seeing how it touched a nerve somewhere within him.

"You met him, like, once, when you were a baby," he continued, his deep brown eyes now enlarged and his brows drawn together in a symmetrical scowl.

"So what?"

"So… he's the guy…" He bit his lip and shook his head. I'd had a sleepless night over the thought of him and Jaynie Lewis. He appeared quite distraught about Nahuel. For a cowardly moment, I enjoyed the pain that was now present across his face.

"He's the one you've always wanted," he added, quietly. This time I struggled to conceal the surprise at his words. "Wouldn't that make the perfect match!" He continued, this time louder. "Bella and Edward will be so proud." He growled slightly under his breath. "Geez, Carlie. Really? Nahuel!"

Now the satisfaction was starting to dwindle. I debated telling him the truth, but it really was so hard to know where to start. That's when Nahuel himself came into view on the second or third step of the stairs that overlooked the hallway. Jacob saw him and started to turn a dark red with the same expression from that night in his truck. An expression fuelled with hatred.

"We'll see what the pack have to say about this—." Jacob started.

"This has nothing to do with the pack," I snapped back. "We know the treaty and he's not breaking any rules. Besides you know as well as I do that this isn't about the treaty…"

From Nahuel, a small smile infiltrated the thin line of his lips.

Jacob growled much louder now. He turned quickly to the door, letting it thump against the outer wall as he raced away.

I ran out after him, but he was already in wolf form. Shredded clothes floated to the ground in his wake.

"Let him go," Nahuel called out, somewhere behind me.

I slowed allowing the space between Jacob and I to grow.

"From what Carlisle has explained about this Treaty, there is nothing he can do by me being here," Nahuel said, misreading the situation. "Don't worry."

That wasn't what worried me. I had not only lied to Jacob again, but this time consciously messed with his emotions. I shook my head, trying hard not to cry.

Nahuel came into my peripheral vision, as I slumped to the floor, my head buried in my chest. "Hey, it's okay," he said, putting a gentle arm around me. "You know if there's anything I have learnt from my father - however much I disagreed with him - it's that these embers are warm enough that they don't need to be stoked. It will not benefit either of you to continue to fight. You can't help it if he has feelings for you. It's not your fault."

His free hand started to draw lines into the damp soil beside me. Wavy lines and circles each one neat and separate in the ground.

"Will you tell me about him?" I said. Our eyes met for a few seconds, and the corners of his mouth imploded slightly before returning to his normal poker face.

"About my father?" He said, in surprise. "What do you want to know? He was a cruel, manipulating, idiot. Strong, and smart, but callous and obtuse." He stood up and started walked into the woods.

I jumped up and started to follow him through the trees.

"He had a way of wording things; a great power of persuasion, that people seemed to like," he continued. "When he said he wanted me to stay with him, I almost did. I wanted so desperately to be with 'my own kind' that I almost allowed him to suck me in to his conniving little world."

So he'd felt that pull too.

"What was so bad about him?"

"What was good?" He said. "He orchestrated a happy little fake family with my sisters, while hitting and taunting them when he thought no one could hear." Nahuel paused for long enough to grunt.

"Your sisters didn't need to stay with him in they didn't want to?" I said.

Nahuel laughed; a short, sarcastic laugh, before slowing to turn to me. "He was too powerful, Carlie. They're only half-bloods. He could have crushed them with his little finger and he told them so all the time." He drew his hand into a fist. "They needed someone to stand up for them, not bully them," he added, quietly. When I looked over, he was biting his lip.

"So you had a fight and haven't patched it up yet?" I said.

"Something like that." He walked on in silence. "After what he did to my mother... I could never forgive him."

"I thought they were in love?"

"Hmph," he snorted. "He wasn't in love with her. He never loved her. He never even knew her."

"But you told the Voltu—."

"I know what I said," he snapped, walking on. His pace had quickened, and without realizing it, I was almost running just to keep up. "It was at Huilen's request. She didn't want my mother's name to be in any way maligned by him. She felt Pire deserved better than that."

I waited a few moments sensing his fragility. "So what did happen, Nahuel?"

He brushed remnants of soil from his palms and thrust his hands deep into his pockets.

"Let's just say that Joham was no 'dark angel'. Their first and only encounter with my mother was when he attacked her while she walked home past the woods one day. He never had any intention of drinking her blood or turning her… no, he was consumed with his so-called experiment. He was desperate to see if she would be able to carry his baby. So he picked the most beautiful woman in the village, raped her… then let me destroy her."

He ground his teeth together as he walked. We had taken a long circle around the estate's perimeter and were now headed faintly in the direction of the cottage.

"I was the first trial," he continued. "Back then he just wanted to establish whether it was possible. So he watched from the shadows. He was there that night. He let her die right in front of his eyes and did nothing to save her."

His eyes glistened and for the first time I think I saw a tear. I instinctively stopped and put my arms around him. At first he didn't move, staying almost wooden.

"It's not your fault, Nahuel, you did nothing wrong," I said, softly, returning his words of comfort.

Then he embraced me tightly.

The air was still and crisp for a June morning and as I held Nahuel I heard a rustling from the nearby bushes. A large stag jump from between the thick shrubberies. I pulled away, my attentions stolen by my new target.

"Come with me," I said, salivating.

He looked back to the animal, almost amused. "Its not for me, Carlie."

"But, you could change?"

He looked faintly embarrassed and thrust his hands back into his pockets. "Who says I want to?"

I left him watching me as I chased the stag through the undergrowth. As fragile as he seemed beneath his crisp facade, he had established something in his hundred and sixty years; he'd accepted what he was.

"You would have liked that," I said, when I returned. Somehow the sweet watery taste of the stag had diluted my upset over Jacob. The emptiness was still there, but now it was submerged beneath a couple of layers of Nahuel's family issues, and pure adrenalin from the hunt. My head felt clearer already.

Nahuel hadn't moved an inch and watched as I wiped my mouth, without passing comment. I looked past him to one of the old oaks. It was a solid tree, with a trunk as wide as a Mini Cooper. About ten feet up I saw three horizontal lines, etched cleanly into the bark.

I took a step forward for a closer look.

"What is it?" He said.

I pointed, then jumped up to the first solid branch. "You see these three lines," I said.

Nahuel sprung beside me. He narrowed his eyes at them and then switched his gaze to me with his brows drawn together. "These are the lines that Edward asked me about?" He said. "Why would anyone go around carving these in the trees?"

"What do you think they mean?" I said, running my finger along the pale oak channels. The edges were sharp to touch and exact to the millimeter.

He shrugged. "Beats me."

"What are you two doing out here?" Bella asked. I spun round so quickly that I nearly lost my footing on the branch.

"Hi," I said, and leapt from the tree.

My parents were arm in arm on the crest of the hill.

"I thought you were in school, Carlie?" Bella continued. She skipped down a small gorge to meet me. My father hung back slightly in the forest. His eyes connected with Nahuel's before mine, then he broke into a smile.

"We were just talking," I said. "There are some lines on that tree."

"Another one?" Edward said. "That makes five." He turned in the direction of the cottage and started pacing away from us. Bella and I exchanged a curious glance.

Bella shrugged. "I don't think they mean anything," she said. "Like crop circles back in the nineties. It all just boiled down to some artistic pranksters with too much time on their hands. I'll bet they're all over the place if we go looking for them."

"Maybe?" I said. But why would anyone be here, on our land, and why would none of us have noticed?

We waited while Edward marched back and forth. "They're in a circle around the cottage?" He said. "That can't be a coincidence."

"Are you sure?" I said.

"Whoever's making them is being very precise," Edward continued. "There's exactly eighteen trees between each marking."

Bella turned to Edward with a wary expression. "Do you think we should still go?" She glanced to me, and then to Nahuel who was standing quietly some way behind me.

"Carlie, will you be extra vigilant around here for the next few days?" Edward said. He looked to Nahuel whose face was riddled with concern. "You too Nahuel," he added. "I'm sure it's nothing but keep a look out for anything strange."

"Dartmouth?" I said.

"Just till the end of the week," he said.

"Maybe the weekend too, if it's not finished in time," Bella added.

An assignment. They were certainly taking university very seriously.

We left Nahuel exploring the forest and I headed back to the cottage with my parents while they packed a few bits. In light of Nahuel's revelations, I was starting to feel distinctly sorry for him. I'd always known I was not 'planned' but somehow it stung to be thought of as merely an experiment.

There was only a short embankment and a few low bushes to hurdle before we reached the river.

"He's quite troubled by his past," Edward said after some time.

I nodded.

"More troubled than he lets on," he continued. "He thinks of his father a lot."

"Really?" Bella said, "after all these years—."

"He just told me all about it," I said, turning to my mother as no doubt Edward had already heard our conversation turning over in my thoughts. "He hates his father," I said. I looked up at Edward in time to see an uncertain look before he jumped over the river.

He waited for me to land beside him before continuing. "He's very upset about something to do with his father."

"Wouldn't raping his mother to see if procreation between humans and vampires were possible be enough?" I said.

"Raped?" Bella said, her eyes drawing together in confusion.

"Yes, that's the part they don't tell people," Edward said, swinging the solid oak door of the cottage open. "Joham wanted Nahuel to join him, to attack women too."

"Then I agree with Carlie," she replied, from behind us, "I wouldn't want to know him either."

"It's just weird," Edward said. "If he hated him so much, then why did he go in search of him after the Volturi's last visit? He said he wanted to tell his father about us, to tell him he could have saved his mother when he was born. Why would he even care about him enough to do that?"

Bella shrugged then opened the closet and started pulling a few sweaters out.

"Maybe he still wanted the whole family unit, like we have here," she said, "which is why I think it's good for him to be here, and see the world through more experienced eyes."

"He's older than all three of us put together," I added.

Edward wrapped his arm around her. "And has probably seen a great many things that we haven't but you of all should not forget how unique our coven is."


	39. Chapter 39 - Jacob

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Jacob

"I'm telling you Jake, that's what I saw," Leah said, from the porch steps. "She had her arms round the Latin guy. They would have kissed if it wasn't for me."

I paced Sue's front yard with my head in my hands trying to absorb the destitution that was threatening to rise in the form of vomit. Just seeing her face again had brought all those feelings back that I'd wallowed in for so long. It had taken me a full five days to even leave the house. Work had nearly fired me. Then and only after I announced the arrival of Nahuel this morning, did the pack feel it even necessary to have me back on patrol duty.

"Ah Leah, it's all messed up." I stopped to rub my eyes and leaned on the white peeling fence. When I'd shared that vision with Carlie, back in the truck that night, I'd seen the image of Nahuel, crystal clear. I'd felt the warmth she'd had for him even then. He'd always liked her. Hell, who wouldn't? This gorgeous girl who was so smart, so astute. What had he even done to deserve her? Apart from being a half-blood. I could never be one of those.

"Well I hate to say I told you so," she said, sounding decidedly smug. "But I don't understand why this can possibly upset you more than you already are, Jake. You knew exactly what you could subject yourself to when you asked me to go snoop on her, she practically told you that herself, and surprise surprise, she was with that guy, Nahuel.

"Really you knew where you stood with her two weeks ago."

'That's not the point."

"That's exactly the point, and Jacob, did you just crumble the top of my mother's fence?"

I stopped. She was right, the peak of the picket fence was now a mound of fibers. I scowled and started pacing again. There was something so much worse about her getting with Nahuel. It was one thing not to imprint, but _him_? _Carlie, how could you? _"You're sure she didn't see you, Leah."

She rolled her eyes. "Of course not, I'm better than that. I ferried a deer in as decoy and she took the bait. Well, actually she drank the bait, filthy bloodsucker." She giggled and I rubbed my hands through my hair for the thousandth time, trying to ignore the slur.

"I just don't get it," I said. "She leaves me in the lurch going practically mad here. Then she's angry when I take my first outing in like forever. And now she's with him. Ugh. I practically brought her up. I've taught her everything there is to know. We've spent years of her life just laughing for the sake of it. How can this have happened? It's all your fault, Leah."

"My fault? Jacob Black, you need to understand that everyone here is trying to help you. And that includes me. You could have sulked yourself to death in that shoebox room of yours if it wasn't for all your friends. So the imprinting went wrong. Nobody knew that could happen. But until six years ago, no one knew that a human and a vampire could spawn offspring either."

"She's not an alien, Leah."

"I agree with Leah," a voice carried round the corner. She tensed automatically.

"You don't know what we're even talking about, Sam," she said, as he came into view.

"No, but I can have a good guess."

"And you'd probably be right," I muttered.

I watched Sam approach Leah. If there was something he needed to say then he didn't voice it in my presence but he locked eye contact with her nonetheless. From alpha of the pack, I was now the one that they waited to leave before they discussed things. As if in my volatile state, I'd mess it all up. No matter. I'd hear it all tonight anyway, on patrol.

"Whose idea was it to invite Jaynie to that bonfire anyway?" I said, searching for another person to blame, with a fresh layer of anger in my tone.

"Rebecca's," they chorused in unison.

I glared at them. How typical that was. She'd barely been back and already Becca had worked out how to get under my skin in a way no one else could. Apart from, maybe Carlie. "You both understand how this has ruined everything. Rather than lifting my spirits, it backfired all over me cos now Nessie, I mean Carlie, thinks I'm busy chasing one of her friends." I stopped at the steps and settled down next to Leah on the top step of the porch to sulk.

Leah went silent for a minute, before slapping my knee and jumping up. She looked at me with a glisten in her eye. "If this is really what you want, Jake, then I know what you can do to get her back."


	40. Chapter 40 - Carlie

Chapter Forty: Carlie

The next day, for the first time ever, I was late for school. I hadn't anticipated that my parents would want to leave first thing in the morning, which knocked my timings off course.

The lessons passed and I soon forgot my anxiety over Jaynie. It wasn't until I saw her glowing face in the cafeteria that I braced myself. She was sitting beside Ruth and another girl called Katie in the canteen fawning over a bowl of pasta. From the other side of the room, I could already hear the chatter about Jacob.

"Carlie!" Jaynie exclaimed, as her eyes fell upon mine. I motioned towards their table. "Are you not eating? Are you still not better? I have the best news, you're going to be so excited for me."

I smiled down at her, pulling the nearest chair out with a shrill squawk as it combed the floor.

"It seems like I've not seen you for months!" she continued. "Well so much has happened." She barely paused to breathe. "You know how I said I liked someone…

"So, I started hanging around with this guy. You know who," and she raised her eyes at me. I prepared my expression of excitement for when she announced him.

"Well, last night, completely out of the blue, Jacob called me and asked if he could accompany me to prom!" She squealed with delight. "Imagine that. He wants to come to my prom, with me!" She paused for effect, watching me intently for my reaction.

"Wow, that's amazing Jaynie," I started, in actual disbelief. How could he? "Hadn't you planned to go with anyone else? It's very late to change your mind when prom's tomorrow."

"Well, yes, I had to let Jackson down. But it's just one of those things. I couldn't say no to Jacob. He's completely gorgeous. And I bet he's a senior. How cool to bring a senior to prom!"

"And you're allowed to bring him?"

"Yes, Miss Lever said I can bring him so long as I submit a consent form signed by my mom. That's it. Can you believe it?"

I tried to keep my face straight. Stay calm Carlie.

"You know if you did decide to come, you could always take Jackson," she furthered. Yeah right. He was eating just across from us in the cafeteria; slightly pimpled, rosy cheeked.

"Actually, I think I will come to prom," I replied, taking both of them and myself by surprise.

"That's great, Jackson will be made up. I always secretly thought he had a crush on you anyway," Jaynie continued, unanimously.

"No I didn't mean with Jackson. I have someone I want to bring." They both looked at me with intrigue.

"Well who is it," said Ruth. "You can't keep us in suspense like that."

"You'll see."

On the way home I easily thrashed my twelve-minute record. It was a brilliant plan, and the more I thought about it, the greater it seemed. If he was trying to hurt me, I would throw it right back in his face.

The house buzzed with activity as I entered. The final panes were being mounted into their aluminum frames and everyone was quite relieved to have the house returning someway towards recognition.

"Where's Nahuel?" I started, just as soon as I crossed the threshold.

"Hunting," Alice replied, walking through to the hall. "Carlisle sent him off in the direction of Canada telling him to count to a hundred thousand before he stopped!"

"Is a hundred thousand enough for him to clear the border?"

"I don't know," she replied, grinning.

"When do you think he'll get back? I could do with speaking to him," I said.

"I know. That's why we sent him off to hunt. Can't take any chances with a load of students."

Trust Alice to know my plans already.

"I'm sure last time I checked you couldn't see half-bloods."

She smiled at me smugly tapping her nose. "Just a hunch."

I busied myself with trivial activities while I waited for Nahuel to return. For the first hour I waded through Esme's closet in search of some suitable accessories for the prom. By the time I returned to the cottage, I was armed with a pair of Rosalie's shoes and a collection of Esme's jewelry, which I laid neatly across my dressing table, spacing the diamond earrings from a matching bracelet and necklace.

Time seemed to slow as the night progressed and while I waited, I lay across the bed listening to the buzz of the forest around me. Occasionally I would hear songs pumping out of a radio, somewhere in the far distance but mostly it was just the rustling of the trees as various animals moved sinuously through the trunks and branches.

I woke to the sound of a car door being closed. There was light streaming through my windows; it was morning already.

I showered quickly, and ran over to the main house.

"Ah Nahuel, I was hoping you'd be in," I said. He watched me approach from across the kitchen with a smile on his face. "There's something I wanted to ask you."

"Okay?" He waited until I was standing right in front of him, now more relaxed and less intense with his stares.

Suddenly I didn't want to ask him to prom. It was about as forward as confessing my undying love to a complete stranger and something in his grin suggested that he was enjoying my embarrassment. And so I fudged around the topic, asking after his outing with my parents first, then questioning his clothes size in case the men of this house didn't have a suitable suit to borrow.

"What I'm trying to say is that… well.. will you be my date for prom?"

He stifled a laugh. "A school party?" A mix of emotions spread across his face. "How many humans are we talking about?"

"I dunno, sixty or so?"

He laughed louder. "Carlie, I've never done anything like this before. We saw a few people the other day. I don't know if I can survive a school of them. I promised Carlisle."

"How will _they_ survive you mean?" I joked, but he didn't laugh. "You went hunting yesterday didn't you?"

His eyes sparkled a deep red beneath the sultry brown pupils, making a perfect cherry mahogany color.

"Yes."

"And did it not quench your thirst?" I said, preparing myself for some graphic answer.

"It did."

"Then you'll be fine." I settled myself onto one of the bar stools.

His lips twisted slightly but he didn't speak. I made promises to him for the next half hour before finally going to school. Nahuel was on board but uncomfortable, but he needn't have worried, all I wanted was to stay long enough to make Jacob mad, and I was certain that would happen pretty quickly.


	41. Chapter 41 - Benjamin

Chapter Forty-One: Benjamin

"I saw her fall but I don't know why. There was some kind of rancid smell that she was struggling to breathe." I said, pulling my arms up to my neck and pretended to squeeze.

"A smell?" Alice replied, with a distinct lack of conviction.

"Yes, a smell." I bit into a sandwich taking my eyes off her for the first time. Since her great revelation and my subsequent visions, I must say, it was quite unnerving to be in Alice's company. At least this time we were in a public place, even if I was the only one eating fast food at seven o'clock. Alice was still abundantly disappointed that I'd made a double-breasted mess of my phone call with Felix. I'd seen that dissatisfaction before, on the face of my father.

"Don't ask me to explain it," I said, with my mouth full as I chewed the food, "because I can't. It smells quite different to anything I've ever come across before."

"Like what?"

"I don't know," I repeated, gulping down. "Is it so inconceivable that she could be asthmatic, or allergic?"

"Absurb. It must be something else. Something or someone that we have not encountered before?"

"Well it's strong because she doesn't get up. Her eyes rolled and then she goes down to the floor."

"What do you mean?" Alice said more forcefully this time. "Is there a wound?"

I closed my eyes again. "Can't see one."

"Well, there wouldn't be, would there," she muttered. "Are there any other vampires there?"

I tried not to pull back from her as she said it; simply mentioning the 'v' word sent me into a spin.

"No." When I opened my eyes she was standing over me staring intensely.

"Why do you always blame these things on vampires, Alice?" I said, looking back at the wrapping that encased the rest of my dinner. Only the end of a tuna mayo foot-long to go.

"Why do you not care!' She shrieked, causing two teenage boys sitting up at the bar by the window to glance over. "I'm sorry, Ben, I'm sorry. It's just when something affects a vampire, it has to be strong, be it a gift, a curse, a power, there's always a vampire at the helm. We don't get the flu or ear infections like the rest of you. Our bodies are one hundred percent resilient. And that can only mean something serious is going to happen to Carlie. You know we can't let that happen." She looked up at the glass windows where the sun was setting. It cast a warm amber glow through the colored film that spelled out the word Subway backwards in yellow and green. She frowned, checked her watch and pulled a chair to the other side of my table.

"But you said Carlie is different, maybe she's just more sensitive to the environment?" A half-vampire had to have at least some human tendencies? There must be an Achilles heal. "Maybe she can be affected by human things that you lot can't?"

She shook her head, and I knew to let it drop. "When does it happen?" she said. "How long have I got to prevent it?"

"I don't know. She was in the school gym."

"She's on her way to the school gym now, it's prom!" Her voice a whole octave higher, and louder too, attracting the attention of the two boys again.

"In a school skirt and vest?" I said, reminding myself to keep calm. It couldn't be now because in my vision it was definitely the daytime. With a male sports teacher and a whistle, this was a lesson.

Her shoulders relaxed a little. "Okay, so she's definitely not wearing that now."

"In this vision, she's just with girls, and I think I saw basketballs in the background."

"Basketballs or volleyballs?"

"I don't know." I hadn't played either at school and did my best to avoid ball sports in general. "Maybe volleyballs? Are they softer and yellow?"

"I'll have to find out her timetable for the rest of the week," she said, "maybe we should just pull her out to be on the safe side."

I scrunched the sandwich paper wrapping into a ball, aiming it at the trash can but missing by a good eight inches. A reminder of why no one ever picked me for their team in Sports Ed. "Is Carlie not going to think it's odd that you can't foresee her, but don't want her to go to school? Besides what if this vision is really far in the future, and doesn't happen until the fall. You can't keep her in forever. Just like you can't keep me secret forever."

She paused, diverting her eyes from me.

"Alice?" I pushed.

She looked at me dead straight, with her honey yellow pupils staring straight at mine. "The time is not right, Ben. Just bear with me a little longer."

I slurped the remainder of my Fanta. Why did I even want to meet her down-right-deadly family anyway? Vegetarian or not. I'd tried my hand at avoiding burgers for a while, at the behest of my mother when she was in her vegan phase. What did that bring me? Nothing. I'd caved in after a few beers when all my flat mates at uni went for a late night MacDonalds. If I couldn't say no to a burger when there was filet-o-fish on the menu then what chance did the Cullens have with my blood?

"You know what, it doesn't matter. I think I'm done meeting vampires, phoning vampires, speaking about vampires. I'm done."

"You're not done, until Felix is dead," she said quietly, but firmly. "You know that."

And there is was; laid out on the table for me, like an exquisite meal that I couldn't eat. The answer to all my problems was to kill a grotesque, powerful vampire, from an even more grotesque and powerful coven. _Kill him and you're a free man Ben. _


	42. Chapter 42 - Carlie

Chapter Forty-Two: Carlie

"These contact lenses hurt," Nahuel said after a while. He needed them to soften the raging red tinge in his eyes. Nahuel was driving us in Alice's Porsche wearing my father's tailored suit, with his long black hair swept back into a tight knot at the base of his head revealing his angular features and razor sharp jaw.

I didn't even try to patronize him with a response.

We arrived at the main entrance where an archway of balloons framed the door to the gymnasium. Couples were walking beneath, arm in arm. We walked with an uncomfortable space between us.

Inside the hall, spinning lights on the ceiling threw pools of color onto my classmates. The music blared. A black and white dance floor covered the white lines marking center court, and at the far end, a trestle table bar had been constructed and stocked with refreshments.

From a photocopied menu with palm tree symbols I ordered two pina coladas; the virgin type. Before we'd taken a sip, Ruth entered the double doors with Harley on her arm.

"Wow!" She exclaimed excitedly, looking first at my dress and then at my date. I wasn't entirely sure which she was referring to.

"You okay?" I said to Nahuel. He gulped then nodded.

Ruth couldn't take her eyes off Nahuel. I'd never appreciated just how startling his South American looks were.

"Pleased to meet you," he said. Ruth blushed and beside me I heard Nahuel suck in his breath. Harley offered his hand to Nahuel - far too formal for the circumstances - who looked at it strangely before shaking it. Harley winced and pulled his hand back prematurely. They didn't make small talk after that.

"How are you coping?" I asked, again, scanning the crowd.

"Fine, don't worry about me," Nahuel replied. But I still did. If it wasn't for the cloying stench of the girls drowning in their mothers' perfume, I might have been worried for my own thirst.

Then I saw them.

Jaynie walked through the double doors with her chin in the air and a smug grin across her face. She wore an orange gown, cocktail length showing off her slim frame. Behind her but still on her arm, walked Jacob in a dark grey suit, slightly frayed on one leg but unnoticeable to the human eye. Other than that, he was smart and startlingly handsome; more manicured than he'd been at the house the other day. His look was altogether softer than Nahuel's, but equally captivating, and not just to me. A few heads turned to witness their entrance. Our eyes met briefly, sending a shiver down my spine, he didn't frown, or even narrow his eyes. Instead he turned to Jaynie and whispered something into her ear. She giggled softly and I had to bite back the urge to lurch for her jugular.

"It's the wolf?" Nahuel muttered under his breath.

"I know," I responded, wondering if Nahuel had worked out why he was here.

Although Jacob hadn't grown a day since my birth, tonight he seemed different; older perhaps, or simply more self-assured. They walked over to our little posse in the corner with more confidence than I anticipated.

"You all know Jacob," Jaynie started; her face full of pride. Everyone smiled warmly towards him. I kept my eyes from his. Beside me Ruth oozed her usual enthusiasm, nodding her head up and down like one of those fake dogs that hang on the back of cars.

"This is Nahuel," I reciprocated, looking only at Jaynie. Jacob didn't offer to shake his hand and Harley was not about to go in for a second time so we all just stood awkwardly in a small circle until Ruth had the good sense to suggest we take some photos. She snapped away at Nahuel and I, followed by Jacob and Jaynie, then we wasted another ten minutes sending the photos of each other around our mobile phones, as if I needed any greater reminder of Jacob and his date.

How had things changed so much? Three weeks ago Jake and I were each other's greatest ally. Now I couldn't meet his glare. When I finally looked up, both Jaynie and Jacob's eyes were settled on me and neither had a single thing to say.

"Er, I'm going to grab another drink, anyone want one?" I said. "Come on Nahuel, you look thirsty." I pulled at his arm until I could no longer feel Jacob's smugness, or hear the low snigger that he'd uttered under his breath.

"Is this a good idea?" Nahuel started, as soon as we were out of earshot.

"Yes of course," I said, followed by, "no, maybe it's not. Nahuel, shall we just go?"

He looked up, eyes sparkling. "Nonsense. This is your prom, and I won't let the wolf ruin your night." He took my hand in his. Before I had time to panic, I found myself following him to the sparse dance floor in full view of everyone in the room. It wasn't everyone's stares that bothered me, it was Jacob's, and I imagined his laser sharp gaze burning straight through my back.

An impersonator of the singer, Rihanna, was singing about an umbrella on a small stage. Huge speakers vibrating alongside her belted out the tune. We approached a cluster of other students. They smiled at me politely before gawping at Nahuel. I motioned from side to side to the thrum of the music. It was a good song to dance to without us having to get close together, and before too long, I began to forget about Jacob, if only for a minute.

"Now, here's one for all you romantics," the Rihanna look-alike called out into the crowd. The beat dropped and the lights dimmed. Nahuel put his arms around my back and pulled me close, and we started to sway in motion to each other. It was certainly closer than I would have got but I didn't wince away, not when Jacob might be watching.

After a few moments he spoke into my ear.

"You know, I'm pleased you asked me to come with you tonight. In fact, coming to Forks was a welcome relief."

"Oh," I said, totally pre-occupied by Jacob and the natural, confident manner in which he'd handled himself. "It made me realize how introverted I had become," he continued. "I think it's good we met again."

"I think so too," I said, carefully.

"If it wasn't for you I'd still be in that cave." An embarrassed grin spread across his face.

"Well now we're even for you saving me from the Volturi all those years ago. If it wasn't for you, I may not be standing here right now." I let out an uncertain laugh, still pre-occupied by Jacob and his presence somewhere across the room.

"You know, I have never sought companionship before," Nahuel continued. He pulled his head back far enough to look deep into my eyes as the song played out. I smiled back courteously, looking away after a moment. "And when I look at you," he continued, "I feel like I've waited a hundred and sixty years to meet someone like me." His unwavering stare returned.

"If I remember correctly, I thought you said we're nothing but a pair of half-bloods?"

He paused and the corners of his mouth twisted, threatening to smile.

"I was wrong... and it's not often you will hear me admit that."

As the song came to a close, Nahuel inched closer. I hugged, which he reciprocated warmly. Then I drew my chin back to his shoulder, resting it there. My cheek felt the radiation of his stare.

"You know there was a time I didn't want this eternal existence," he whispered into my ear. "Forever is a long time, Carlie." The words were unsettling.

"Now lets get everyone on their feet." It was the singer again, offering the perfect opportunity to pull away from him. "Come on everyone, _'I'm gonna get mine, you'll get yours',_" she started, bursting into song. A crowd quickly started to amass around us.

"I think I need to get some air," Nahuel uttered. I started to follow him out.

"Carlie, there you are." It was Jaynie, followed closely by Ruth. She dropped her clutch bag to the floor and grabbed my hand as if to do the same.

"I'll leave you to it," Nahuel whispered into my ear. "Won't be long."

"You sure?"

He nodded.

"Okay," I uttered, before the gap in the crowd squeezed up between us. I laid Esme's handbag beside Jaynie's and Ruth's.

"He's hot isn't he?" Jaynie started.

"Jacob, yeah, I guess, he's a good looking boy," I replied, emptily. Just trying to rub salt in the wound, I told myself. It was bad enough that she was here with him at all.

"No, silly, I mean Na-hool."

The comment took me by surprise.

Ruth leaned over to add, "you two looked so cute dancing together."

"Nah, it's not really like that."

They raised their eyebrows at me and giggled.

"You really know where to find them," Jaynie added. If only she knew.

I watched the doors where Nahuel was crossing the threshold. I'd leave him two more minutes if he hadn't already returned. "Where are your men?" I asked.

"By the bar; they won't dance," Ruth said, pouting a little.

I nodded, stealing a glance towards the bar while continuing to sway self-consciously to the music. Jacob was looking in our direction and abruptly turned away on seeing me. Damn, he caught me looking.

I danced until the song played out, eyes fixed on the stage well away from the guys.

"I'm gonna go see if Nahuel's okay," I said. They grinned at me as I turned to walk off. It wasn't particularly easy trying to get out of there. The loud music made everyone wildly unobservant, and squeezing between them took me closer that I liked to humans.

"Excuse me," I said, again, pushing into two guys gently before they looked up. As they moved I saw Jacob's face in my midst. He wasn't by the bar anymore but standing on the edge of the dance floor, hands in his pockets. His head was slightly dipped towards the floor and he looked to me through his brows.

I scowled at him.

"Don't be like that, Carlie," he said, as I approached, reaching to grab my arm.

"Like what?" I replied, pulling away from him.

"Facetious."

I turned back to face him straight on and crossed my arms. "What are you doing here, Jacob? What are you doing?"

"What is he doing here more like?" He spat, gesturing towards the doors. "You know if Sam caught wind of this, he'd bring the whole pack to take him out."

"What has he ever done to you?"

"It's what he _could_ do that worries me. I can't believe you brought him here with all these students."

I struggled to find an answer. I'd been so self-involved that I hadn't really thought of the implications of bringing him here. Besides Nahuel was old and that made him strong. Lines of worry contorted his handsome face. It was hard to stay annoyed at him with his big almond eyes and intense radiating warmth. The warmth I'd missed so much over the past few weeks. After a moment, he seemed to brush the argument aside and stare at me more intently than before. "You're so beautiful," he said, tucking a curl behind my ear.

"What?"

"What happened to us, Carlie?" He said softly. "Where did it all go wrong?"

"It went wrong when you tried to get inside my head and manipulate my thoughts."

"Do you not think I'm angry at myself for that?"

"You violated me," I uttered under my breath, "And I wouldn't mind but what you saw was all nonsense. When you don't know what you're doing, Jake, you get it wrong. You see what you want to see and nothing else. How could you possibly think that forcing some kind of vision would elicit the truth?" My voice had somehow crept louder as I spoke, and I tried not to notice the glances from nearby students. Jake pulled my arm and led me towards the side of the room with his red hot grip. I waited until the other students had lost interest and turned back to him slightly irritated by his attitude. "You think you can just extract thoughts from my brain, plucking out whatever it is you want to see, and then project that anger back at me? It doesn't work like that. On a fundamental level, no on a moral level, it's intrusive, it's—."

"It was wrong?" He cut in.

I bit my lip, eyes cast to the floor, my argument now totally lost its flow.

"You think they were my insecurities not yours?" He continued, his brow furrowed now. It was bad enough to be discussing it here in front of everyone, the embarrassment dancing wildly across my face. I studied the shiny new shoes of the students around me without looking up. His insecurities, my insecurities, we were one step away from Oprah.

"It was wrong?" He pushed.

I nodded, swallowing, still studying shoes. It seemed to frustrate him.

"Carlie, look at me." He touched my chin lifting it until our eyes met. They sparkled a deep cinnamon with such depth, like a thousand years had been packed into his short life.

"I feel like I'm connected to you," he said. "I feel like we are one, I always have. But for the last few weeks all I have been trying to do is rack my brains to work out what happened and where it all went so miserably wrong. What I saw that night haunted me right in here." He drew one hand into a fist and brought it up to his heart. "It made me try to let you go... " he whispered. Now a glassy sheen infiltrated his eyes, but he didn't flinch. "But I couldn't, Carlie. No matter what I did or where I went, I saw your face, I smelt your scent. I just couldn't get you out of my head..."

A sense of urgency crossed his face. "I have thought of nothing but you for the past three weeks but you must tell me and you must tell me now if your feelings aren't the same. Do you have any feelings for me at all, because I can't live with the uncertainty of not knowing any longer." His eyes locked on mine, with a gaze so strong, I thought I would melt.

I tried to look away from him, tears pooling my eyes. Again, slowly, I nodded.

I felt the relief flood through him. His body relaxed, his arms pulled me into a tight embrace and his hand moved to my face. His other hand went to my neck and he pulled me towards him, his lips to mine.

This time I felt a spark far greater than any vision I have ever sent through my fingers. It was so utterly different to the last time and right there by the side of the dance floor we kissed more passionately than I'd ever imagined, locked together amongst the throng of students. For a moment, it was just Jacob and I, the past ebbed away and the others all vanished; the world comprised of nothing but us.

… until…

Whoosh.

I felt was the swish of air across my face, and opened my eyes just in time to see the back of the fist that swept past me, straight into Jacob. Its force of impact lifted Jacob clear off the ground. Stunned, he didn't even react. He slid backwards into a group of girls who he nearly toppled like bowling pins, then touched his lips as a fine trickle of blood started to weep down his chin. Two girls, Rachel and Jennifer, let out shrill screams, but they didn't fall. Instead they backed away from him, but not far enough to miss out on all the action.

"Stop," I shrieked.

Jake steadied himself on the floor before looking up at me; his eyes drawn and his mouth pinched in the corners. Then his gaze, like Jennifer and Rachel's, moved over to the perpetrator by my side.

I turned to the source of the fist.

Nahuel stood frozen beside me, wearing a mix of anger and hatred across his face. He slowly backed away. When he was level with the doors, he turned and ran from the gym much too fast.

Around me a crowd quickly grew. Jake was picking himself up from the floor, wiping his lip on his cuff. He was faintly quivering; not the timid 'just been punched' type of quiver, but one in which his body was threatening to phase. The mortified face of Jaynie pushed through the thick skin of humans, rushing to his side. It should have been me.

"Fight it, J," I said. But I wasn't watching anymore. Despite my deepest urge, I found myself following Nahuel towards the doors. "I have to go after him," I yelled behind me, before I disappeared into the night.

Nahuel's scent took me into the trees that wrapped around the back of the school. I didn't want to go. All I could think about was Jake. _The kiss. _And I knew I should be right by his side helping him up from the floor, telling everyone it was a stupid misunderstanding, and waiting until their insipid attention spans had exhausted themselves so we could sneak out together and talk some more, but instead _Jaynie _would be there for him, and I was running through the black forest in Rosalie's slightly too small heels in search of troubled Nahuel. I didn't even know Nahuel felt that way about me, well not really; so much time had been wasted procrastinating over Jake that I hadn't dared acknowledge Nahuel or his disconcerting stares.

I followed his uneven meander for maybe a mile, until the forest thinned off and the terrain became steep and baron. Where the rock edge curled back in on itself, the scent dried up. I stopped and listened into the cool night air. The heartbeat was calmer than I expected.

"I'm sorry," I called out. It echoed slightly and the heartbeat sped up. I shouted into the open terrain.

"Jacob and I… there's something I should have told you."

After a few moments, I heard a rustling from somewhere below, and I followed a small steep path down and round a bend to where I saw his foot protruding from some foliage.

"So now I know what it was you were really seeking," he said, before his face fully came into view. His eyes rested on the moon, which hung far in the distance. He looked aggrieved. I paid no attention and seated myself next to him, pulling my dress up around my knees as I settled down. I followed his gaze up into the night sky.

"The wolves call it imprinting," I started, slightly unsure of why I felt I owed him an explanation. "They say our souls are entwined. I wanted to believe it but something felt wrong, something was different—."

"He is a werewolf, maybe that's the difference," he answered dryly.

"I think I had to realize it for myself. It's one thing to be told something but it's quite another to feel it."

"And now the pieces all slot together," he responded with little interest. "It was Jacob that has been tearing you up all these days…" His voice dropped to a whisper. "And there was I hoping it was me."

I turned to look at him. "I'm sorry, Nahuel, I truly never meant to hurt you. I didn't know. It wasn't premeditated. I hardly even thought it possible. Jacob and I are so different. You know, it took me a while but I see it now, and it's so right. Jacob and I… we're meant to be together after all."

I linked my hand with his, half expecting Nahuel to throw it back at me in disgust but he didn't. He took it and held it tight. He didn't speak but the corners of his mouth curled upwards very slightly, towards the twinkling stars.

It was some time before he spoke again.

"You remember when we first met and I said half-bloods were nothing?"

"Oh yeah, the thing you said you were wrong about... I think the word you actually used was mutant."

He smiled, chewing over his thoughts.

"Well, I don't think I really understood what we are... the others I live with… the warriors; they're fighters, bloodsuckers but nothing more. They don't have any insight; they don't actually care about things. It's like they're empty, hollow vessels. That's what I thought I should have been. All these years I hated myself for being so different. I thought I was weak of mind or something to have feelings and I tried to bury them, to hide them from the others. That's part of the reason I stayed in the waterfall cave. I didn't want them to see how different I was; how vulnerable I was. But then I came to meet your family…

"I still don't understand how you can care for humans like you do; not just… Jacob, but all of them. Your whole way of life... but now I've seen it again, I'm starting to understand why," he paused, "and I respect it."

"You do?" I turned to look at him. His face was suddenly animated. "But you said you didn't want to change?"

"I don't, but something you said before made me think… maybe it's us - I now think we've got something that the others don't; the humanness, the empathy. Does that sound strange?"

"Not at all," I said. It sounded perfectly sensible to me.

He let go of my hand and twisted his fingers around each other.

"Maybe in defeating the Volturi, we'll create a better place…Maybe it should be us that rule? We understand far more than they ever could."

"Why have you got so much anger for the Volturi?" I said. "So they came to try and get Zafrina, but the point is they didn't get her. Why are you so hell-bent on taking them out?"

"I believe it's my duty to end their dictatorship," he said, then squirmed slightly, not looking at me. "You know the prophecy I told you about?"

"Yeah."

"I am the only half-blood male. It's by design, I am meant to do this because I am the only one that can. I am meant to take them out."

"Are you not scared of confronting them?"

He didn't speak for a moment. "When they are gone, I will not be trapped by the fear of losing Zafrina anymore, or the fear of being different. When I find the witch, she and I will be strong enough to take them on once and for all," he said, with a sarcastic smirk, that I felt deep down that he believed. He stood up and looked away from me, and that was the last he said.

Volleyball kick-started my morning, which was always a difficult period to accomplish, investing so much energy trying to act clumsier and weaker than I was. My classmates dripped through the doorway like sand in an egg timer wearing abundant fatigue beneath their eyes. One late night and the student body comes to breaking point.

What made it worse was that I hadn't planned for volleyball this morning. So distracted by my thoughts of Jacob, I'd prepped for Thursday's timetable not Fridays and left my sneakers at home. Alice will laugh at me when I tell her, seeing as she'd asked me if I was taking my gym kit to school this morning and I'd said no.

I passed the janitor on my way in, begrudgingly sweeping the debris away before school began, though he hadn't done a thorough job. Subtle remnants of the previous night encroached from the corners of the gym. Amongst the miscellany of deflated balloons, there were a few strewn tatters of twisted crimson streamers and the occasional crushed can.

The more I thought about prom, the more I thought about Jacob, which stirred something within my stomach. Of one thing I was certain; I was smitten by the kiss. Jacob was like a bug; and now I'd been bitten I couldn't shake his scent nor his face from my mind. He had not visited this morning as I'd expected. Now I would have to wait until after school and that seemed like an age away; I was seriously considering cutting class.

"Jaynie is so mad," Ruth started, coming towards me from the left. I hadn't seen her coming. In fact I couldn't smell any of them; only a sour odor oozing from the corner of the gym. Ruth looked at me for a reaction but I couldn't concentrate. The aroma made my skin crawl, sending shivers down my spine.

"Are you alright Carlie?" Ruth continued; gossip and scorn long forgotten. Actually I wasn't. The smell seemed to be affecting me. It was stale and harsh and felt cold, dark and sinister but edged with a familiarity that I couldn't place.

"You don't look so good."

My mind swam and the four white walls of the gym started to spin.

"I don't know," I said. "I don't-."

"Carlie?" She repeated, this time with alarm.

I took a few disorientated steps. There was a harsh palpitation from the pit of my stomach. It was nothing I'd ever experienced before. Amidst my retching hysteria grew, as did the pool of blood on the gym floor. Screams of panic flooded the air and unable to hold myself together, I crumpled into a heap.

Then everything was silent.


	43. Chapter 43 - Carlie

Chapter Forty-Three: Carlie

"Carlie, can you hear me? Move your hand if you can hear me?" I felt a familiar hand take mine. The grasp was softer than a vampire's would usually be. It took me a second to place the voice.

"Can you squeeze my hand?"

It was Carlisle.

In my head was the faint whirring of a siren in the distance. There was a vibration that reverberated through my body. We were moving.

I tried to tighten my fingers around his hand. They felt disjointed and heavy. When I forced them to move, it brought back the dull ache in my stomach again. I paused until my nerves settled then I opened my eyes slowly squinting at the seemingly unnatural brightness that greeted me. As the glare settled, my eyes wandered from the racks of clinical apparatus to the watchful gaze of Carlisle who sat beside me.

"Jacob." My voice was husky.

"We've not got hold of him yet. Do you remember what happened?"

I tried to push a vision into his mind of what I had experienced in the gym. It flowed through in small parcels like sucking from a straw with a hole in it; the force behind it weak and spasmodic. He watched it carefully.

"Why do I feel like this?" I said.

"In human terms, you were sick and passed out." His face showed no signs of panic but the corners of his eyes dipped down.

"But there was blood everywhere." I lifted my head to glance around the otherwise empty vessel in which we were being transported.

"Not your blood, Carlie, and that's the most important thing. I imagine it was the blood from your last hunt. If you were human, you would have brought up food. The problem is... the sight of so much blood panicked everyone out of all proportion. Such dark blood can signify a very dangerous state for humans."

He held my eyes open and checked my pupils.

"I don't expect any serious damage was done, but we'll check you out at hospital anyway."

He started scribbling onto a pad.

"Carlisle," I said.

He stopped, slid his pen into his breast pocket and looked up.

"I've never heard of a vampire being sick before?"

He sighed. "The human side of you is stronger than we anticipated to override your ability to heal like that. Perhaps Nahuel can shed some light on it. He may have experienced something like this over the last century or so."

Nahuel.

How I longed to have left him to his own devices and stayed with Jacob. There was still so much to say. I had left Jake, lying on the floor in the school gym. The same floor I'd collapsed upon. Could the two events be somehow connected?

"I need to speak with Jacob," I said, urgently.

"All in good time, Carlie, I'll try his phone in a short while. First you need to get some rest."

I bounced heavily as the ambulance rode over a set of speed bumps. It wasn't long before the continual buzzing that had been swirling round my head went silent and the engine was cut. The doors flung open and I was whisked away by two white-coated attendants. They smelt like they should have been appetizing but somehow my thirst was lackluster.

They pushed me along great stretches of long vacant corridors, farther and farther away from all the commotion of A&E.

I was finally abandoned in a spacious room in the farthest neck of the hospital, which overlooked a multi-storey car park. The white walls looked like they had been flecked with a toothbrush, spatters of greens and blues to break up the bland expanse.

I hadn't been in my new bed long before the first knock at the door. It was a nurse who came in to administer my drip. She set it up next to me but didn't try to put it in my vein. Instead she smiled sweetly at me, feigning sympathy at my pathetic expression.

Next Carlisle returned with Rosalie, Emmett and a blood transfusion sack in tow. I didn't even feel like it. My thirst had never felt so dull.

"You don't want it?" Carlisle asked in surprise. The dismay must have showed all over my face. None of their eyes moved from the crimson hospital bag. Rosalie scoffed from the side of my bed and ran the back of her hand across my forehead. Was she testing for anything, or was this what she thought people did when they visited the infirm?

"I just don't feel like it, I don't feel like anything."

"Well, it should perk you up," he said, handing me the sack. "You lost a lot of blood this morning." And by that he wasn't referring to my own blood supply.

I ripped at the top and took a tiny bit from the sack. It didn't have the same taste at first. Then suddenly my taste buds started to bloom and awaken and before I knew it I was ravishing the whole bag. The others watched jealously as I squeezed the blood sack dry. It was the richest, creamiest, most addictive taste ever.

"I guess your body was thirstier than you thought," he concluded, scribbling some information onto a pad that I doubted any file in this hospital would see.

"I called Edward," said Rosalie. "They're on their way."

"They don't need to come back from uni," I said, suddenly overwhelmed with guilt for the commotion I'd caused. "I'll be fine. I'm actually starting to feel better already." I clenched my fist to test my reflexes. They did seem stronger, maybe it was just the blood I needed.

"Perhaps one more sack would not be such a bad thing?" I suggested.

Rosalie smirked.

"We'll see," Carlisle added, with his nose directed at his pad.

There was another knock at the door. For a moment, I considered that it might actually be my parents. Instead Alice popped her head around the door, an explosion of lilies in hand. Jasper and Esme followed her in, and the room seemed to shrink around us.

"I thought flowers would cheer you up?" She started.

"Thank you, but you didn't need to Alice."

She ignored me and put them onto the dresser. Esme perched beside me, while the others sank back to the far wall. Emmett started to play with the television, scanning through the channels.

"She was just sick," Carlisle added. "Nothing to worry about for a human - it was just the shock that threw Carlie off balance." They nodded at him. If my father was here, he would have asked for my vitals and questioned every detail but as it was, the others happily accepted the diagnosis from Dr Cullen and looked over to me wearing sympathetic expressions.

"What caused it?" Esme asked.

"Well Carlie said it was a smell that set her off."

"Do you think it is worth taking a look round that gym, see if anything is amiss?" said Emmett from the back. He had settled the television on the news and muted the sound. Jasper nodded, eager as ever. They looked to Carlisle for the authority to leave.

"Wait until school is out," Carlisle said, "there's no point creeping around the campus in broad daylight." They nodded in unison.

Carlisle's pager started to vibrate on his belt. He candidly picked it up scrolling through, then he glanced at me before reaching for the door.

"They've found something at the school," Carlisle said, confusion lacing his somber tone. He exited swiftly and Alice raced after him down the corridor.

Alice rushed back in with such fluidity that I nearly missed the door opening. "Okay, don't panic," she started, "a body was found behind the school gym," she said, "by the back doors."

"That was where I was," I said, then suddenly wished I hadn't by the horrified looks on their faces. "I didn't do anything," I added, quickly.

"We never thought you would have," Esme said, taking my hand in hers.

Jasper leaned forward. "Carlie was the smell like rancid blood?" He said.

"No."

"But that would only explain the reaction if she'd drunk it," Rosalie said, matter of factly.

"It wasn't blood. I know not to touch the blood of the deceased, and besides, I don't think I would have forgotten a dead body."

"Unless it had already been drained of blood?" Emmett said. "Look at this." He turned up the sound on the remote.

"Today the pupils at Forks High School are in a state of shock after discovering the remains of a dead body in the school grounds…" A female reporter said. "The first of the body parts was found at nine twenty-five this morning by the school's janitor who was clearing the debris from last night's junior prom."

No one moved an inch. In the background, a mass of students were being herded back by teachers with horrified faces. I recognized Mrs Banner at the forefront. Grandpa Charlie was in the far distance with his back to camera.

"Bodily remains have been found at three separate locations." The reporter gestured behind her. "It is not known at this stage whether foul play is suspected but given the state of the remains, we can only speculate that this person is the victim of a savage animal attack or a brutal murder?

"There is no indication as to the identity yet – although we believe it is a male fatality." The reporter paused drawing her hand to her ear. "We can now confirm that it is not a pupil of Forks High School. I repeat it is not a student. The school have accounted for the whereabouts of everyone at Forks High."

The school campus was populated all evening with prom but surely one had nothing to do with the other? Apart from Jacob and Nahuel, everyone else was from school.

A body drained of blood. The school.

Nahuel.


	44. Chapter 44 - Carlie

Chapter Forty-Four: Carlie

"Nahuel," I blurted. "Could he have done this?"

Everyone's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Oh no," Rosalie said.

"But how? Were you not with him?" Jasper said, confusion growing like a web across his face.

"Yes, but he went to get some air. I was in the middle of an important conversation. I… I was caught off guard. Nahuel was outside, alone."

The sickening vision rose from the pit of my stomach; the sight of him tearing at a human. Jacob was right; I shouldn't have brought him, and now someone was dead. The sheer thought of it made me feel queasy, bringing on the putrid taste in the back of my throat that I'd had earlier.

"It can't have been then," Jasper said. "You may not have noticed the absence but you would have seen it in his eyes and smelt it on his breath the minute he returned."

"Did you?" Esme said.

I shook my head. "I didn't notice a thing. I didn't stare into his eyes exactly, but then he had the colored contact lenses in anyway to dampen the red glow.

Alice turned to him. "So it must have been later, Jazz?"

"But either way the damage is done," Emmett added, turning the television off.

"But the treaty?" Esme said.

"I need to speak to Jacob," I said, urgently.

"Call him when we've spoken to Nahuel," Emmett said, "I would prefer to be prepared for any retaliation if they take this the wrong way."

"But Jake will know we had nothing to do with it," I said.

"Will that be enough?" Esme whispered.

Emmett and Rosalie exchanged an uncertain glance.

"We allowed him to come here - that was enough," Esme added. "We need to get word to Carlisle. Alice, will you page him? Rosalie, we'll be needing both cars."

She nodded. Jasper swept me from the bed in one fluid movement. "Someone's got some explaining to do," he said, scooping me towards the door. Everything was happening so quickly. Esme was scribbling Carlisle's signature onto my medical notes. Alice was paging, Emmett was ditching the flowers out of the window. Jasper had me in his arms.

"I'm fine, I'll walk." I wriggled. "I'm not an invalid."

"Suit yourself." He let go and we made a keen exit into the long corridor and out of the back door into the overflow car park.

"Oh, wait." I ran back into the room to eradicate the empty blood transfusion pack. The smell that lingered on it did nothing to calm me.

To my surprise, my car was parked up next to Rosalie's at the back of the parking lot. Alice tossed Esme the keys and jumped in the convertible with the others.

Although it only took minutes to drive from the hospital, it was long enough for the initial shock of the events to transform into anger inside me. I had brought Nahuel to my home, my family had embraced him unreservedly, and at the first opportunity he had broken the one rule we asked of him.

I had to speak to Jacob. Surely Jacob's love for me would be enough to protect us from the entire pack? Maybe together we could sort it out so the wolves wouldn't need to get involved, but then Emmett was right, we should wait until we've heard the full story before acting rash. If Nahuel was the killer - and he undoubtedly was - then the wolves would seek retribution, Worst-case scenario, would we have to go into hiding, or we would stay and fight.

I was not ready for either.

It was Emmett who leapt from the convertible first, mounting the steps to the front door in one great effortless bound. He had the advantage of the roof being down even though the storm clouds overhead were grey and engorged. We abandoned our cars on the path and piled out with similar ferocity.

"He's gone!" Emmett growled from the top of the stairs before I'd even crossed the threshold. I had to see for myself, storming up the stairs and past his burly frame. Nahuel's room was untouched. The tribal attire still discarded on the floor. No sign of the suit he'd borrowed for prom.

Esme walked past and began to inspect the bed sheets that were still tucked tightly round the underside of the mattress.

"Or maybe he never came back?" I said, quietly.

"What do you mean, back, were you not with him?" Rosalie said, pushing into the room behind me.

"He stayed out, he said he wanted to watch the stars," I said, recalling our last conversation in the woods. How foolish I had been to leave him there alone.

Esme sat on the bed with her head in her hands. "We must have put too much pressure on him here. We can't possibly have known how hard it would have been for him."

"That's no excuse, Esme, he has been on earth long enough to learn some willpower." It was Emmett again; his brows knotted and the darkening golden hue danced wildly in his eyes. "He knew the rules."

"It's just like Sofia," Esme whispered. "We should have known." She rubbed her hand across her face. Sofia Alonzo? The name from the treaty.

"Who?" Emmett said.

"Oh nothing," Esme added, quickly. "Just thinking aloud. You're right, he should have been more careful." She glanced up at Rosalie who was sifting through Nahuel's belongings.

"Why didn't I see this one?" Alice sat next to Esme on the bed, looking perplexed. "Damn it."

"It's not your fault, Ali," Jasper said before glancing to me. "You can't see half-bloods. Besides, it's none of our faults and there's no point wasting time blaming ourselves. We have to split up, and we have to find Nahuel before the wolves do."

That was at least something we could all agree on. We abandoned the bedroom and made our way downstairs.

"I'll check the cottage first," I said.

"I'll check the forests…"

"I'll check the back of the school…"

"What if he's gone back to the Amazon?" Rosalie said.

"Would he really just leave like that?" I said.

The front door opened before we reached its handle.

"Call off the search," Carlisle interrupted, his hand still on the chrome knob, his eyes cast to the floor. "I've found him."

We stopped abruptly; all eyes on Carlisle's strained face.

"What did he have to say for himself then?" Emmett started, curling his hand into a fist and pretending to slam it into his other palm.

"Nothing," Carlisle said, looking up at Esme as he spoke. "Nahuel is dead."


	45. Chapter 45 - Jacob

Chapter Forty-Five: Jacob

'_Carlie,'_ I thought. Now the pain oscillated in waves from my neck down to my legs._ 'Carlie,'_ I thought, again. It hurt to move, yet the cramp from staying still was far worse. My eyes wouldn't open no matter how hard I tried, although with enough determination I felt my legs thrash about. I heard their voices. I knew where I was.

'_Carlie.' _Then my mind fell back under.

When I came to, her name was still on the tip of my tongue before I even knew I could use it. This time, the strength I'd used in my legs had transferred to my face. My neck was still lethargic, but my voice worked, it was strong enough to utter her name with heavy breath. The rest of the pills were on the side table, but I discarded them. No phone. She'd be in school anyway.

I pushed at my legs, encouraging them, no urging them to move. Why wouldn't they move?

Then I saw the rash of markings that wept across my thighs. Blood red sears singed my torso. Why hadn't they healed? But I knew why. It was the venom impeding their recovery.

The voices of the others I had heard before were now gone. Leah, I had certainly heard Leah. She had been replaced by a quiet calm. There was a gentle clicking of a wheelchair a few rooms away, the low tick of a clock. Oh no! Midday!

'_Carlie,'_ I thought, again, this time more forcefully as I tried to spring myself from the bed with a fresh determination. The school. I had to get to the school.

I hadn't meant for Nahuel to be hurt. She had to know that. She had to know why.


	46. Chapter 46 - Carlie

Chapter Forty-Six: Carlie

"Carlie, it was Nahuel's body you smelt at the school," Carlisle added, his voice thick and low.

_What?_ How could it be?

"Surely not," Rosalie started. "Our bodies can't just be ripped up and…"

She stopped talking and I stopped breathing. So that's all it took to kill a half-blood. No re-forming. No second chance. I felt their eyes all fall upon me and knew they were thinking it too. One instant we were blaming him; brandishing him a murderer and a coward for running away, the next he is the victim, strewn in pieces across campus.

A hush fell on the hallway in silent homage to Nahuel.

"At least I now know why you gagged the way you did," Carlisle said, his voice softer now in the thick somber air. "The stale smell of his blood was simply unimaginable." His eyes closed momentarily while he recalled it. Only Jasper looked skeptical. "It was alarming how quickly it had decayed.

"Anyway, I'm afraid there's more…" He headed for the dining room with a small leather bag. I followed and sunk into my usual spot around the table. Six ashen faces directed incredulous, terrified gazes at Carlisle. He barely looked up as he emptied the contents of his bag out.

"I can't piece together everything from the body parts. The police haven't even found them all yet and there were too many people around for me to do anything brash, but here are some clothes that were found at the scene." His eyes flicked to me as he spoke. "I managed to keep them out of Chief Swan's evidence."

He picked up a savaged pair of dark grey satin lined trousers that had fallen in a heap on the marble surface, straightening them in front of us. They were incomplete but with the remains of a black leather belt hanging by threads from the side. They were severed down each leg till about the knee, where any additional material had been lost altogether.

"Ah, now I know how I missed it," Alice said, eying them up with a sadness. The scent radiated from then like a beacon. They snorted with distaste at the sight of them. The canine smell, which I had become so accustomed to, still revolted them.

Carlisle continued to tip out articles of clothing; a red T-shirt, indigo jeans. I'd seen them all before; not just once, but all the time. They were all Jacob's. The air left my lungs and felt tight against my heart. The puzzle was beginning to unravel. It made sense, after the punch he'd received earlier in the night. Jacob had retaliated and killed Nahuel. He was the only one there who would have been capable of it, plus he had a motive. That's why he hadn't come to visit me this morning.

My head swayed unfathomably and I felt the room start to spin around me. My head fell into my hands on the table, eyes tightly shut. What was happening? Jacob - my Jacob - had killed Nahuel?

But we had spoken through our issues. These actions flew in the face of everything we had said last night. We were entwined on a path that would take us happily into eternity. I naively thought that everything would be fine from now on. No, better than fine. But now the unquestionable moment we had shared felt like a lifetime away.

"He was there last night," I said, without lifting my head. I felt their eyes on me.

"And what happened?" Alice said, with overwhelming calm in her voice.

When I spoke the words were quiet and muffled between my hands shrouding my face. I explained how Nahuel had punched Jacob and the events that ensued.

"Well Jacob holds grudges," Emmett said. "He must have been so angry about the fight that he went back for more."

"What were they fighting over anyway?" Rosalie asked from across the table.

"Isn't it obvious," Esme said, taking my hand in hers.

I closed my eyes but the reality of it stayed omnipresent, like the unbearable nightmare I could never escape from.

"Jacob's scent was all over the body parts," Carlisle said, wincing slightly.

Poor Nahuel. He didn't deserve this; no one did. I wanted to wallow in disbelief but couldn't. It was too desperately natural for Jacob. Who was I kidding? A werewolf and a vampire; it was foolish to think it could actually go anywhere. But I thought we had an understanding, Jacob and I. We were going to be together forever. The churning in the pit of my stomach told me I was right, yet the evidence before me spoke reams. If he was so special, put on this earth to protect, then how could he abuse the one weakness that Nahuel had. His mortality.

"Give the trousers to Charlie," I said, looking up. Carlisle's face was awash with surprise. "Thank you for trying to protect him Carlisle, but Jacob should pay for what he's done."

Pushing my chair from the table, I stood up and started to make my way to the door, if nothing more than to get as far away from his incriminating pants as possible. The more I thought about him, the more the love I had felt curdled into hate for what he had done. How I wished my parents were back from uni already. I needed them so much.

Then I saw his bare chest through the tall windows. It glinted golden from amongst the foliage.

Jacob.

He broke through the line of trees that encapsulated the driveway, racing towards the house. The others saw him too. Low angry threats resonated around the room.

"How dare he," I said, through snarling teeth. Though he would probably have heard it, it didn't deter him. Through the fully glazed wall my eyes met his. He slowed to a jog, never leaving my line of sight. Searing slashes that had already started to scar laced his ripped torso. Only a vampire could inflict such wounds; the desperate last clutches of Nahuel's life.

I broke away, not daring to look. An indescribable anger started to bubble inside me. How dare he think he could come here to explain himself. He murdered Nahuel in cold blood. How dare he!

With all my force I flipped the huge table up from under me. It lifted off with relative ease, before flying through the air towards Jacob. The others neither interfered nor tried to stop it, their faces frozen in horror. Jacob saw it too. He slowed slightly, his eyes darting from it to me. It careered ahead then exploded into the glass window with a piercing shatter.

I didn't wait for impact but I heard the great marble table boom as I flew through the back door. It was still reverberating on the driveway as I leapt towards the river.

Behind me, footsteps sent tremors through the ground. They were running, all of them perhaps, I wasn't sure. Then all at once the footsteps stopped. I guessed they had contained him, at least I hoped they had.

When I got to the cottage the pain in my heart had only intensified. So I kept running, willing it to leave me.

I ran in the direction of the Olympic Mountains that hung over Forks. A crest jutted out in a spur that always reminded me of my elbow, the way it stuck out so involuntarily. It was here that Jake would coach me to jump farther and run faster and be the person that would make others proud. It was here that I learnt to admire him, to trust him so inexplicably. The monster I thought I was starting to love.

I ran past it, too afraid to dwell on the happy times. They were all false, rendered invalid by his sick jealously and what it had driven him to do. Did he think it would make me love him more, by marking his territory? Or was it that his pride had been dented? He was erratic. It was a danger to me and ultimately a danger to all of us.

A scent wafted through the cold dense air. I didn't think about it too much, my mind still seething over the sight of him. The scars - how angry they looked. How desperately Nahuel must have fought.

And then there was a small part of me that wanted Jacob to explain himself. No doubt he would say his actions were to defend an endangered life or something like that. Maybe he would blame Nahuel for attempting to attack a human? But I knew deep down that there was no human involved; it was sheer jealousy and pride.

Jacob deserved to pay for his actions, but it wouldn't bring Nahuel back. Nahuel was dead.

As I ripped across the grasslands I took a deep breath, there it was again and this time the scent flowed deep into my lungs making my heart flutter again.

I took another deep breath.

It felt like relief, and all I could think of was the hospital blood transfusion pack; so sweet, so rich, so creamy. Maybe this would dull the pain. I savored the rich mixture of tastes on my tongue, like honey and roses and daffodils in full bloom on a midsummer's day; not strong, but fresh and human.

Usually I'd panic at the taste of something so irresistible. But not today. Nor did I tell myself to turn away. It was dangerous and it was foolish but it captivated me, and I allowed it to. Mentally I was not strong enough to put up the barrier, to shield away the thirst. For every breath I took of this sweet honeydew, I felt somehow distanced from the pain of Nahuel and Jacob.

My throat was hot, burning with the longing. I let myself embrace it, and followed it desperately, sniffing out the source of this medicine to heal my wounds.

The landscape was baron but for a small forest to the north. I headed towards it eagerly. The scent was getting stronger. I let the sweet aroma lure me in. The open languid landscape vanished beneath my feet in mere seconds. Then came the trees, with mossy trunks dripping moist tendrils from their branches.

I pushed on until I saw a small road that curtailed the undergrowth. Through the tangled and obstructive branches was a clearing up ahead.

I pulled back. From the thicket I surveyed the open parkland. It was bare but for some scattered picnic benches and some sort of hut at the far end. A club house perhaps; locked up with heavy shutters and bolts across its slatted wooden door.

Then I saw them on the far side of the clearing. A man and a woman. He cradled her in his arms. I pushed away the pangs of guilt that rose unsteadily from within me. I'd been conditioned to feel like this and I must not let it get the better of me. They were dead already in my eyes, let it not be marred by the remorse that they would want me to feel. Like Nahuel had proven, I must accept and embrace what I am.

This was new for me. Not new for my mind, I'd imagined it a thousand times over in my dreams but in reality I'd always had the strength to fight it; I'd always chosen them over me. I looped round the clearing, staying concealed by the red cedars.

She gazed into his eyes. They were so serene together, their harmony intertwined. It revolted me that they should be so happy together. So happy, when my heart was in such pain. This is the price they would pay for that.

I approached from the north as the sun's rays broke through the swollen clouds. It dazzled them, and they drew together to kiss. Then the image of Jacob's face blurred my vision, pools of sorrow in his eyes. He would hate me for what I was about to do. But how could he judge me when he had only done the same to me? I shook the scene from my head and prepared myself to launch in for the kill.

I inhaled deeply, allowing myself to relish the final enticing breaths before I sank my teeth into them. I closed my eyes, pulled my lips back over my teeth and coiled to spring

"Excuse me, but I'm afraid we have closed the area now for essential maintenance," a new voice announced, in a strangely southern accent. I set back in astonishment. They too seemed surprised. A guy had materialized out of no where and was conversing with my targets. They looked at him with disbelief but unquestioningly reached for their belongings and prepared to move. Who was this person? The park keeper; closing a public area for the day?

Something about his smell was vaguely familiar, the accent, the small lithe frame, the short spiky hair. Where would I have seen a park keeper before? Then he turned in my direction. His milky white complexion and soft, satin eyes shone out into the forest. It looked like the man who had come to collect charity at the house all those weeks ago. The guy with the navy Toyota.

Could it be?

He most certainly was not dressed like a park keeper. There was something odd about the way he looked into the trees, yet his smell was absolutely human, and alluring. The yearning within the pit of my stomach still compounded, more and more. However bizarre, it was not enough to deter me, one small obstacle, that was all.

The two lovers climbed into a seabring saloon in a parking bay by the hut. By some twist in fate they had survived. He would not be so lucky.

This time I would not hesitate.

"You don't have to do this, Carlie," the man said, into the woods. I reeled back in shock. How could he even see me? I moved over slightly and his eyes followed me through the undergrowth. Surely I was well hidden to the human eye?

I pulled my lips back over my teeth, calming myself momentarily, then shouted back to the clearing. "How do you know my name?"

He shifted uncomfortably on the spot, his eyes looking aimlessly into the woods. "I can just see it in my head," he said. He lifted the hood of his raincoat over his hair.

What? Did he have a gift?

I stayed vehemently still. A great crack of thunder peeled out. It distracted me for long enough to notice the thickening of dark rain clouds tarnishing the sky with a deep purple bruise. After a few moments he spoke again. "But what I see now is that you don't do it, so it's okay… you can come out."

"Can you see me?" I said, quietly.

He didn't reply but even so, I found myself walking toward him. It started to rain; a fine wet mist that caused him to shield his eyes with his hand as he continued to search for me into the woods. As I came into view his expression changed but there was no fear in the way he crunched his brows together; his expression was almost pity.

"It's okay," he repeated, taking another step closer. The rain intensified into full droplets. When he was within arms reach, I let the stranger take my hand. It wasn't as warm as Jacob's but human nonetheless, and strangely rough. I wasn't sure, but it felt like he was shaking.

"Lets get you home," he said, with a weak measure of certainty.

He led me through the rain to his car that was parked up by the road, the front tire hanging precariously over the edge of the sidewalk. One of the hubcaps was missing exposing the rusted arch of the wheel. I got in clumsily, my thoughts lost on how he could have possibly known where to find me. Even Alice couldn't have foreseen it. Unless of course he was telling the truth?

I stared out front watching the rain beat down on the windshield. He didn't start up the car like I expected, and when I looked across at him, he was shaking.

"Are you okay?" I said.

"Yeah, just a little jumpy."

"Me too," I admitted. I'd never stopped myself mid-hunt before; never mind that it was a human and a complete stranger who had convinced me to. And now, for some strange reason, I was sitting in his car.

He glanced over at me. "I'm Benjamin," he said.

"Carlie." But he already knew that.

He started the engine and as we drove through the parklands, he glanced over at me.

"You know this is all really weird for me," he said.

"Then why come?"

He turned from the road again to look at me. He forced a smile. It was delicate, like his demeanor. "I kept seeing you in my head. Something told me I had to come."

"So you're psychic?"

He smiled again, and this time the corners of his eyes grinned too. "Something like that."

Gifts in humans were never this strong - it was uncanny.

"If you really were psychic you would never have come," I said, shaking my head.

"Why's that?"

I shirked, overcome with a sudden embarrassment. "You just wouldn't."

He didn't speak immediately after that. We drove through the park gates and took a left towards Forks, in the direction of the house.

"A few months ago I saw something... in a vision," he said. His face contorted slightly. "It was of a girl at school. I didn't want to believe that it could come true, despite the fact that everything else had pretty much been spot on, but I just thought this one wouldn't happen."

"What happened to her?" I said.

"She got knocked down by a car. Hit and run. I guess it was probably accidental, not that it changes anything. She still died."

"I'm sorry." When I looked over his eyes were brimming with tears. He wiped his face with the back of his arm, and tried to clear his face.

"Were you close to her?" I said.

"No, it's not that. She died in hospital later that day. Brain hemorrhage. The point is, I knew it was gonna happen, and I did nothing to save her."

I didn't like to stare at him. He was clearly devastated by the whole thing, but how was it his fault?

"You weren't at the wheel of the car or anything," I said, finally.

"But I might as well have been. I knew what would happen and by ignoring it, I let her die." He slowed and turned to me. "When you asked me why I came here today, I came because I had the chance to help and I couldn't ignore it again."

"So you came out here to save those two people?" I said.

His forehead crunched slightly and he tilted his head slightly.

"Is it so inconceivable to think I came out here to save you?"

"I don't need saving," I said quickly.

He smiled slightly, didn't speak, then shook his head.

"Is that why you came to our house last month?" I said. "Did you see this back then?"

He bowed his head slightly. "Not exactly, but there you were, in Alice's house. I never considered if I'd ever meet you. I've never seen anyone… special, in my visions before. Up till then I thought I was going crazy."

"Well you're certainly not crazy," I said. "A little unfortunate perhaps if I'm the only one left that you see."

"Oh I see loads of people... but nothing ever happens with them."

"Why am I always the dramatic one?" I rolled my eyes. He forced a smile with his eyes fixed on the road.

"So why have you been meeting up with Alice anyway?" I said.

He paused, twisting words around. "Because we're family."


	47. Chapter 47 - Benjamin

Chapter Forty-Seven: Benjamin

She was staring at me. Was it that I had stopped her from killing those people or that I'd said I was related to Alice? Either way she'd not said one word for at least a minute; a long, slow, painfully awkward minute.

"Are you okay?" I said.

"And she's known... all this time?" She said. "We're not allowed to associate ourselves with... family."

"Like you and your grandpa Charlie?"

"Okay that's different," she said. "If the Volturi knew."

I couldn't help myself stiffen at the mention of them. It seemed their name was commonplace around here.

"You know Alice pretended you were collecting for charity. Why would she tell us that? I don't think she's even told her husband, Jasper," she continued, watching for my reaction. "You know he is really worried about her going off all the time. Why would she not tell him?"

"She thinks it could hurt him, or set him off or whatever. I've learnt not to ask." I opened a bottle of soda from the holder by the side of the gearbox, which fizzed as I twisted the cap.

She didn't speak for some time. We passed a Ford Mondeo, and occasionally I caught a glimpse of a car in the rearview mirror some way behind us, but aside that, there was little to distract me from the road and it only exaggerated the silence.

"You want some?" I said, pushing the bottle towards her.

"No thanks." She shook her head. "Benjamin, what do you and Alice discuss at your secret meetings anyway?"

I took a gulp from the bottle. I didn't want to go into the whole impending death thing. "Mostly our premonitions," I said. "At the moment, my visions are kind of random. Alice is training me to focus them more."

"Can you see Jacob?" She said. Why were they all so obsessed with seeing him. Sure, it would certainly clarify a few things about this morning's events, but given that they were a bunch of vampires I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to know.

"No," I said. "I don't think so." I pretended I'd not already run through this exercise with Alice. "Is there anything distinguishable about him that maybe I'd recognise?"

She paused momentarily. "Well, he can turn into a wolf."

I spat out a whole mouth full of soda over the dash. "What?"

"Oh nothing," she said quickly. "It's an even longer story... and not one for repeating."

So now there weren't just vampires around, there were more monsters? Why had Alice not told me about that? I looked at her strangely then started to smear the soda residue into my speedometer with my sleeve.

I caught sight of an erratic car slinking across the road in the rearview mirror. I slowed, looking over my shoulder.

"It's Alice," she said. "You better pull over."

I did as I was told, and moments later Alice pulled up right behind us. She was out of the car in a flash.

"Oh Carlie, you're okay," she said.

Carlie looked mortified and hung her head like a five-year old. Faint redness blossomed in her cheeks. She practically jumped out of the car into the rain. "Thank you Benjamin," she said. "Alice will probably want to take me home from here."

"Yeah, about that," Alice cut in. At this point I was expecting a great big thank you. She bent down to face me straight on. "Ben. Promise me you will never do that again."

"I'm fine," I said, shrugging, "just trying to help." As if it would take me one step closer to resolution for Jennifer's death.

Her face was pained. "We're dangerous, when will you get that?" Why did she think it mattered to me. I was going to die soon anyway. Better to save a few lives on the way, if I could.

Alice turned and took Carlie's shoulders, looking into her eyes. Carlie squirmed and tried to look away.

"Thank goodness," Alice said, at nothing in particular. "Your parents get back about now. I bet you wanna see them?"

Carlie nodded apathetically while she surveyed both cars. "Do you want to take my car, Carlie? I'll ride with Ben, we could do with a chat."

We waited until Carlie had pulled out before setting off. Alice was completely on edge, worse than the last few days. "Okay, now is the best time to introduce you," she said, looking distinctly uncomfortable.

"Are you sure? Maybe I should just come back another day?"

"You wanted to, so now it is. Just listen to me and everything will be fine."

I didn't like the sound of that at all. A Spanish bullring sprang to mind.

It wasn't long enough before I turned into the long winding approach to the house. The Porsche was parked up beside a black Mercedes on the drive. In front of them lay fragments of glass and a great crack in the paving. The huge marble table I'd foreseen was nowhere but the gaping hole that punctured the side of the house lay testament to its presence.

Everywhere was still.

I pulled up next to a shiny black motor.

Carlie was standing beside her car with another girl. They were both holding hands and had their eyes closed like a seance.

"That's Bella," Alice said. "Carlie's showing her what happened."

Bella opened her eyes and threw her arms around Carlie. "Thank goodness you're okay," she said, through the lashing rain. When she saw me her demeanor tensed.

Carlie whispered something in her ear and she relaxed slightly although strains of worry still contorted her face.

Then Bella stared at me. Maybe I was going crazy, but it almost looked like a smile.

"Are they sisters?" I said to Alice. They looked alike. When she didn't reply I turned to see a very pained expression across her face. "Alice?"

"Brace yourself," she said with an expression that made me nervous.

Then I saw a guy at the door, a look of aggravation across his face.

"Jasper," Alice whispered. Behind him three others started to line up under the canopy of the porch. All painfully white and still like Greek statues.

"So this is who he is," Jasper shouted, leaping over Bella and Carlie in the biggest jump I'd ever seen. His face poised in concentration as a great snarl escaped his lips.

Alice zipped out of the car.

"No, Jazz," she cried out. "It's not what you think." She jumped high overhead, landing squarely between my door and Jasper. I froze. Surely I don't die yet. I would have foreseen it.

"I'll explain," Alice said, putting her hands up to Jasper's advancing steps.

Another guy launched forward from the door. He stopped behind Jasper with barely a noise. "It's okay, Jazz."

"No, it's not okay, Edward. What is this, Alice? A human?!"

"Calm down," A third guy said from the doorway. This one wore a white coat and looked clinical like a doctor or something. Beside him, more white faced people came out to see the commotion. But Jasper's expression remained locked on me. "Jazz, not out here," the doctor added. "Lets all come in out of the rain and talk about this."

"Come on, buddy," a tall brown haired guy added, emitting a light-hearted chuckle. He started making his way down the steps but Jasper edged away from him; the tension still wound tightly across his face.

The guy called Edward and the doctor exchanged a stern glance.

"Don't worry," Edward added, turning back to face Jasper. "You're going to like the explanation, Jazz." He reached out to rest his hands on Jasper's shoulders. It was enough to freeze the aggression momentarily but then he snarled again through his lips. "Come on," Edward continued. "Don't make a scene. Let's go inside."

"You too Ben," Alice said, pleadingly, through the rain. I couldn't think of anything worse that getting out of the car; my own cocoon of protection against these monsters. But Alice had asked for my cooperation, and given how honest she'd been with me, I knew I ought to trust her. Jasper tried to twist round but Edward pushed him forward towards the steps. The tall brunette guy patted Jasper's back as he passed him.

"You're wrong," Edward said to Jasper under his breath. "It's not that."

Alice and I shared an anxious glance. I hoped she knew what she was doing. I started to unbuckle my seat restraint and then slowly made my way inside.


	48. Chapter 48 - Carlie

Chapter Forty-Eight: Carlie

I didn't follow the others in. Instead I sat outside, in the rain, on the outer wall, listening loosely to their conversation inside as Benjamin spoke and then my father thanked him repeatedly for finding me in time. Oh the shame. And if Benjamin hadn't turned up, I might have actually have gone through with it?

I heard the slip of the door before seeing my father materialize in front of me with a large blue umbrella. "Want to talk?" He said.

'_No,' _I thought, and looked away quickly.

"I want you to know that I understand what you're going through," he said. He perched beside me on the wall, sheltering me from the downpour, but it was too late for that. My hair hung in sodden corkscrews around my face.

'_No you don't._'

I jumped up and headed back up the driveway on foot. He was beside me in a matter of seconds. I sped up, eager to put distance between us. Why did everything need to be so debated. Fine, I had gone after some humans. He didn't have these outbursts, nor did my mother, Carlisle, Emmett, Rose, Alice, Esme or Jasper. It was just me. The weak link of the family.

"Nessie, I fought those urges every single day," he said, his voice low and level. He stopped walking and waited for me to turn back and face him. "Your mother's human scent was so overwhelmingly powerful, I didn't know if I would ever be able to trust myself around her. It was almost unbearable."

He was more than twenty paces away and didn't move. "Whatever it was you planned," he continued, "the most important thing is you didn't do it, no one was hurt and you should be very proud of yourself for that."

I grimaced. "You can't say that for Nahuel though."

"No, you can't," he said, in a softer voice.

It was quiet enough for me to hear the others inside. They were still talking to Benjamin; trying to piece together the link between Alice and his family.

"Come on," Edward said, suddenly. "Alice has some explaining to do."

Edward was in the house before I could jump the steps to the front door. The others who were already inside had made it as far as the lounge. Rose, Carlisle, Esme, Bella and Emmett were all standing facing Benjamin who was hunched forward, twisting his fingers together with Alice by his side. At first I thought Jasper had gone, but I found him motionless by the long windows, watching the precipitation beat down onto the decked area outside.

No one spoke as we walked in.

"Al, why don't you come back to the cottage with us," Edward said, piercing the silence. He gestured towards Bella too with an outset palm.

"What? Now?" Alice said, looking hesitantly at Edward.

"It's fine, Esme will look after Ben, won't you?" Edward said in response to the unasked question. Alice didn't look convinced.

Esme and Carlisle both came forward at once. "Of course," Esme said, "Benjamin, let's get you some clean clothes. Benjamin shot Alice an uncertain glance.

"It's okay," Carlisle added, facing Edward.

Edward nodded, and waited while both Bella and Alice came forward.

"I won't be long," Alice said to Ben. She walked over to Jasper next and took his hand, but he didn't turn to face her. "Wait for me," she said, softly. We all looked away, as if trying to give the two of them some privacy.

We made our way together towards the back door; Alice, Bella, Edward and I. Alice tried to look chirpy as we left the house but inside I knew she wasn't. She needed to be with Jasper.

Edward erected the blue umbrella and attempted to shield us all as we walked out into the rain, but really it caused streams of water to drip onto my right shoulder where the umbrella stopped short. I pulled the hood of my jacket back over my matted hair.

We were still silent when we neared the river.

'_What did you hear, Dad?_' I thought. He kept quiet until we reached the water, then he stopped and turned to Alice.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He said, almost hurt. "Is this why you've been avoiding me?"

"You know why," Alice whispered. She glanced to me and Bella and then jumped over the river. She waited on the far bank for us to follow. It was my father who made it by her side first, still looking at her directly in the eye. She dropped her gaze to the floor. "I wasn't ready for you to hear about Ben." She didn't look up as she spoke. "I was waiting for the right time to tell Jazz. It was my news to tell, and I wanted Jasper to be the first to know. But I saw a vision of him reacting badly—."

"As badly as he did?" I said.

Alice frowned. "Worse." She paused and looked up at me; her eyes wide like saucers. "But it's okay, because that doesn't happen now."

"You should have trusted me," Edward said, quietly.

"Come on, let's talk inside," Bella said. "The river's swelling and the rains are set to get worse." Bella pulled on my arm and we headed towards the cottage. Once we were in the hallway, Edward turned to Alice.

"Okay, you're right," he said. "It was none of my business, but for now lets forget about Ben. That's not important right now. Tell me about the other thing on your mind."

We all peered at Alice. She stared hard at Edward, then, after a few seconds she turned to me.

"Carlie, I really, really don't want to panic you," she started.

Bella took my hand in hers. "What is it Alice?"

"There's two things…," Alice said. Again, she looked at Edward, and waited for his nod before she continued. "I've been getting these visions. They're very hazy. I can hardly make out what they are at all."

I nodded, following her gaze back to my father, watching the concern infiltrate the lines in his forehead.

"You think they're of Carlie?" He said.

Alice nodded, but twisted her lips slightly. "I'm not sure, which is why I never mentioned it. I mean, for all intents and purposes, Carlie blocks my visions completely and always has, so I just assumed that perhaps I was tapping into a premonition of an animal out in the forest, and that's why it was so blurry. I've never had a vision from an animal but then I've never had visions like these before either, so I guessed it had to be something new, something totally different."

"A wolf?" I said.

"Maybe," she said. "Like I said it was all very blurry, ridiculously blurry in fact. Lots of forest glimpses, lots of greenery, earth, the river, and then the cottage; that was the only thing that actually confirms that its here in Forks, but it doesn't make any sense." It made sense to m; if Jacob had secretly been making trips to the cottage to check up on me in my absence. "Then, today, when you ran off, I tried everything to focus on you, to see where you were going. We were really worried about you Nes— Carlie.

"Naturally, I knew there was no hope it would work, but then I saw the really blurry scene again. This time, it wasn't of the cottage but of a picnic area. There were two people, and Ben." She looked down as she spoke.

"So, the visions were of me," I said.

"Yes. I called Ben, and when he said he was racing to get you from a picnic area in the national park, I realized that all this time, those blurry visions had to be connected to you."

"What's happening to me?" I murmured.

"So, what's changed?" Bella said.

"I don't know," Alice replied. "But it's weird. I can't quite describe the way I see these visions, but it's almost like I'm seeing them through someone else's eyes. Usually my visions are like a birds eye view, and of course, they're usually crystal clear, but these are different."

"Through my eyes?" I said.

Bella scrunched up her face.

"How does Ben see Carlie in his visions?" Edward asked, collapsing the umbrella and propping it by the door. "Can he see her fully?"

"Yes, absolutely, which is how he got to the right place at the right time," Alice replied. She turned away from him to walk through the short corridor to a small lounge area at the back of the cottage. "So, maybe I'm just getting better at my visions and slowly I'm learning how to see Carlie."

"So, what's number two?" I said.

Alice turned to watch me enter the lounge with a cautious disposition.

"You said there were two things to discuss," I continued. "Seeing me in a vision is the first, but why would that panic us?"

Alice paused.

"Because you think someone might be following Nessie," Edward said.


	49. Chapter 49 - Jacob

Chapter Forty-Nine: Jacob

If only they had listened.

I clutched at the searing pains rippling through my stomach; half scars, half wounds and all of them painful. I deliberated returning to the Reservation but it had taken all my energy to race this far. My right leg gave way with every step, and my head spun with the drugs but there was still one thing I needed to tell her.

Slowly I limped behind the trees that lined the freeway until I found a diner on the edge of town. It was small and rundown with shiny red bench seating that was fraying at the seams.

I asked the waitress for a pen and paper and started to write it down. She needed to know what happened. She needed to know about him.

Then I had to disappear.


	50. Chapter 50 - Carlie

Chapter Fifty: Carlie

Alice turned from us and made her way over to the empty fireplace that dominated the other side of the room. The lounge was barely big enough for the four of us. Add a couple of sofas, some wall dressings that weren't quite pictures, more like rugs mounted on the walls, and of course a hearth that protruded out by more than a foot, and it was full to capacity.

"That was merely a tiny thought that entered my head," Alice said, defensively. "I can't say for sure that someone is or was watching the cottage. In fact there's a great deal more certainty that I'm letting my imagination get carried away with itself. It's so strange for me to not be able to see something." She turned to Edward. "It's probably just the same as you not being able to hear Bella's thoughts, that's all. Instead you try and guess what she's thinking, and sometimes you guess wrong."

Edward smiled, then tipped his head towards her slightly. "It's more than that Alice."

She squirmed slightly. "Okay, so a few times, I've had this feeling that something has been watching your cottage. The blurry visions feel like I'm looking through someone else's eyes, but a) I'm not so sure whether it's not just crossed wires from Ben's visions, or b) it's an animal, or c) more than likely it was Jacob. If I'm starting to see you Carlie, then there's every chance that I could be seeing you through Jacob's eyes?"

"But you've never been able to see Jake before?" I said, picturing his desolate face and his scarred olive chest running towards me. I shifted to the centre of the three-seater sofa and pulled my sneakers off to draw my knees into my chest. It wasn't particularly comfortable.

"And maybe I still can't, who knows?"

"Can you see anything of this morning's events?" Bella said. "What happened between Jacob and Nahuel?"

"No, nothing," Alice said. Bella started to open her mouth but Alice added hastily. "Ben can't either."

My parents looked wary.

"There's nothing in my visions to suggest anything dangerous, so you've just got to trust me on this one Edward, and stop listening to my paranoid thoughts. I will tell you if anything bad is going to happen."

He sighed. "I just wish you'd told me."

"Why are you so worried anyway?" She snapped back. "I appreciate you're protective over Carlie, but come on, there's very little that would pose any threat to her, except another vampire and between us and the wolves, it's simply out of the question."

My parents exchanged a glance.

"Come," Edward said. He walked us back out into the pouring rain and over to the nearest of the tree markings. I hadn't seen this particular one up close, but it was no different to the others; three lines carved into the bark. The rain had stained the naked flesh of the tree a darker sand color.

"Lines on trees?" Alice said, skeptically. She ran her hand along it, then sniffed at it.

"See," Bella said.

"No scent?" Alice mused, taking a closer look. She sniffed at the air once more.

"It's more like a trail of empty air sandwiched between all the usual smells of the forest," Bella said.

"How long would you say a carving like this has been here?" Edward asked.

Alice frowned. "I don't know."

"The edges are still sharp. The trunk is still fairly light in color. This can't have been done more than a few weeks ago."

"A month max," Bella added.

"So why can we smell nothing?" I said.

"Think about it," Edward continued. "Nobody could come onto this land without us knowing about it, yet these slashes can't be more than a month old. If someone's been here to do this - and by the way they've done four other trees around the cottage with the precision of a machine - then we should be able to smell it."

"You think someone's erased their own scent," Alice said.

Edward frowned. "Perhaps, and would that not support your theory that someone is watching the place, albeit they've found a way to be incognito?"

The lines in Alice's face crunched together. She started pacing, taking four steps before changing direction. "Surely not, I've never heard of such a thing. It must be the wolves," she said, finally. "That's the only reason I could've missed it?"

"We'd smell it," Bella said.

Alice put her hands to her temples.

"It's too late to see anything now Alice," Edward said, followed by, "oh."

Alice went quiet and looked up to meet Edward's eyes.

"Go," Edward said. "Jasper needs you."

She looked up apologetically at Edward.

"Go," he said again. "We'll get to the bottom of this later."

She flicked her gaze to me. "Honestly, Carlie, you have nothing to be scared about. It's probably nothing," she said, before disappearing through the trees, out of sight.

I woke the next day feeling replenished, only to realize that Nahuel was still dead and Jacob was still the culprit, and my heart turned over again back into hibernation somewhere deep inside. I tried not to feel the guilt for the two people whose fate's I had tangled together like nooses around their necks. Although I thought about them both, I only dared admit to grieving for the real victim, Nahuel. Yet it felt like my heart was mourning for Jacob too. In a confusing sort of way, he was a victim; of his own foolish mistakes.

I pulled the covers up over my head and tried to switch off from the world, if only for a moment. It wasn't working. Instead of staring at the ceiling, I was now looking at the thread count in the cotton sheets. Images of Nahuel's mutilated body poisoned my mind, bringing back the pungent smell that had repulsed me so. The more I thought about it, the less I understood Jacob's actions; what motivation had driven him to kill Nahuel? Were my feelings not abundantly clear? He never needed to defend his territory if that was what he was doing. I was his. I would always be his.

But everything had changed. To look at Jacob with any sense of pity or remorse would only make me stoop to his level. A cold-blooded murderer. And for that reason, it seemed wrong to dwell on Jacob or even to admit it out loud. If I had carried through with my hunt, it would have put me in exactly the same place as Jacob - carrying out a brutal attack to cure an emotional wound. Maybe we were more suited than I dared admit.

And then there was Alice. She wasn't concerned at all about the lines in the forest nor the visions she had been receiving, so why was my father so on edge? I tried to think of anyone who would care enough about me to be watching the place. No one sprung to mind, no one at all. I was invisible to most of my classmates. I never came across other vampires, and I certainly didn't see any of the other wolves.

My thoughts were interrupted by a careful knock at the door. I didn't answer. I knew by the rasp that it was my father, and I had a feeling he would come in anyway.

"Carlie?"

I peeked out over the sheets for long enough to catch his anxious eyes creeping around the door.

"How are you feeling today?"

I shrugged and returned to the sheets. Perhaps I would count the stitches on the whole bed.

He came into the bedroom and perched at the far end of my bed. His shoes were wet, and when he walked it made a subtle squelch on the tiled floor. "You know, it's natural to grieve," he said, watching me. I tried to look away. "Nahuel was your friend and probably your most natural ally."

I pulled my knees into my chest, tugging at the bed covers that he sat on.

'_And if it hadn't been for me, he would still be alive, with Huilen and Zafrina, who he adored more than anything in the whole world.'_

"He adored you more than anything in the whole world," he said, and it sent a shiver down my spine. "Did you not notice the way he idolized you? Half the time he was out in the woods looking for you, and when you weren't there he'd hide in his room pretending to be asleep."

'_But he is dead because of me.'_ I rolled over so that he wouldn't see my face crumple before him.

"Nahuel was dead long ago; at least inside anyway. Hiding away from the world in that cave was no existence. You know, it is because of you that he interacted with people again; he brightened up, and I think, if he were to look back over the past few weeks, he would count them as the best he'd spent on this earth." As the words digested, I felt the slightest trickle of relief begin to dilute the searing guilt. My mind cast back to the last night we were together. How I wished he hadn't seen me kiss Jacob. That must surely have made it worse in his final hour.

"Carlie, what happened was between Nahuel and Jacob, you had nothing to do with it."

I winced. _'I can't understand why Jacob would do such a thing. He must have had a reason? He might even be sorry.'_ As if remorse would make his actions forgivable.

"Don't even think about it."

'_I have to know. I need to confront him.'_

"No you don't. I don't want you to see him."

'_Why? If for nothing more than for an explanation?'_

Edward's face looked strained. "He crossed the line this time."

"He crossed the line because of me!" I said, my voice croaky from the first time I had used it. I re-adjusted myself on the bed as Edward came closer, right beside me.

"He is his own person, and made his own stupid decision that he will have to live with forever," he said, with mounting aggression in his voice. "I could kill Jacob for what he's done but I'll be damned if I'm letting him take you down with him."

I shook my head, not wanting nor daring to believe it.

"Jacob could have put you at risk, don't you see that?" His voice was firmer and slightly irate. Then his tone altered, softening slightly. "At the end of the day all that matters is you're safe."

I got dressed and headed over the main house, where Alice and my mother were talking to Benjamin. I'd heard their conversation as far back as the river. They spoke louder in front of him and it carried well even through the rain. By the time I got to the terrace, I knew Benjamin was going to be staying in my parent's room in the cottage. Why not? After all, I was the closest one to being human; it seemed only right they put the two of us together. Perhaps this was a way to keep him from Jasper. More likely, it was a way to distract me.

Alice and Bella were sitting on the sofas in the lounge, which gave me a good view of them through the patio windows as I approached.

"Hi Carlie," they said. Alice had regained the spring in her tone, while my mother looked on with slight duress.

"Hi everyone." I took off my raincoat and was about to hang it up to drip dry.

"Let me," Benjamin said, taking the coat from my hands and reaching up to the hook at the top of the stand. He took his down at the same time and started to put it on.

"You going out?" Bella said, behind me.

Benjamin turned round, putting his hands through the arms of the coat and hunching his back slightly to get the fit right.

"I'm gonna head to the shops and buy myself some fresh stuff," he said, "I only brought the clothes on my back, and a few bits in my rucksack, and I could sure do with some food..."

"We usually keep some in the fridge for... well just help yourself," I said.

"Don't worry, little darlin', I'll be just as well to get some of my own." He nodded slightly then turned for the door with a map in hand. He took an umbrella from the stand in the hallway and opened the front door for Rosalie and Esme who were making their way up the outer steps.

He nodded courteously as he passed before disappearing out of sight.

"Yeah, speaking of that," Rosalie said, sitting down to remove her boots. "How much longer do you think we've got here?"

My mother was the only one who appeared interested.

"Again?" Esme said, looking slightly strained.

"But I know you all agree—," Rosalie continued, looking to Bella and Alice.

"We know, Rose," Alice cut in, casting a glance at me. "How many times must you bring it up?"

"Well I think Carlie should know," Rosalie continued. "We've been here way longer than anywhere else. We graduated school nearly a decade ago. Carlisle is pretending to be, what, forty or something, and now Ben, the human, knows about us. You do realize we're exposing ourselves. Do you want another visit from them?"

"Carlisle knows what he's doing," Esme said, turning to face her. "He always makes the right call. If need be, we'll vanish overnight; we're set up for it. We've done it before."

Bella sighed. "Maybe we should start to think about it?" Her voice dropped slightly. "And I don't mean Barnstable, I mean somewhere fresh. We've not got anything tying us down… anymore." Bella didn't look at me as she spoke but I knew what she was thinking. It was why Carlisle had said all those weeks ago that we couldn't leave yet. They'd been here for me, so I could be with Jacob. Now there was nothing else left to stay for.

Despite everything, the thought of leaving filled me with horror.

"What's in Barnstable?" I asked.

They all looked a little sheepish.

"It's a renovation, for emergencies—," Bella started.

"This is not the time or the place to be discussing this," Esme cut in, firmly. "It can wait."

Rosalie sunk into the sofa and pulled a magazine from the coffee table. "Wait until when?" She said, flicking through the pages aimlessly. "Until Huilen comes to avenge Nahuel's death?

Alice scowled.

"Certainly until Ben has returned to Biloxi," Alice said, watching their reactions closely.

Esme smiled, but Rosalie glared, raising her eyebrows. "Why must he stay here?" She said.

"He came here for a reason, Rose. He came here for our help."

"But what can we do?" She said. "We can't get ourselves embroiled in human fights, and if you ask me to choose between a domestic or a coven of vampires, I know which one I'd choose."

Alice looked about to say something, but Esme cut in.

"Well I think it's very generous of you," Esme said fondly.

Alice shrugged. "He's family."

Rosalie threw the magazine back onto the glass table and stood up impatiently. She glanced at the front door and out onto the now empty driveway. "It was bad enough when Bella used to come round, when you were human I mean."

Bella froze.

"Sorry Bella, but you remember what happened with Jasper." She looked at Bella unapologetically.

"Well I can take it if you can?" Bella teased; her face a juxtaposition of emotion.

"And it's not forever, Rose," Alice added. "It's just for two months."

"Two months?" Rosalie said, aghast.

"Yes, Ben has seen something, in a vision. It happens in eight weeks, and I'm going to be by his side when it happens."

"And so will I," Bella said. "It's the least I can do..." Her eyes inadvertently shot to me and I cringed.

"But why here, why now?" Rosalie said. "If I was superstitious I would say strange things always happen in threes." She paused, looking at me questioningly. "First they brought Nahuel back. I knew that was a mistake and at his first opportunity he messed with a wolf and got himself killed."

"That has nothing to do with Ben," Alice said defensively.

"Okay, but that brings me to strange occurrence number two," Rosalie continued. "We have a human turn up at our door, saying he's your relative and he can see the future. Does that not strike you as slightly suspicious? Humans don't have gifts."

"I did," Alice said. "Is it so hard to believe he might have one too?"

"Anyone could have predicted that Carlie was running in the direction of the National Park, we all saw her leave."

How I wished the ground would swallow me up. I was already standing up, and I started edging my way towards the front door.

"But no one could have known that Edward and Bella were bringing Nahuel back from the Amazon with them, or that Carlie wanted to go to the Amazon in the first place—."

"You saw them?" Rosalie said, confused.

Alice looked perplexed. She looked at me, and I stopped moving. I was nearly at the wide opening that separated the lounge and the hallway.

"No, I didn't," Alice said. "Ben told me," she added in a small voice behind me as I slipped out of the front door into the rain. A car was approaching, which sounded like Carlisle's. He turned the corner with Emmett in the passenger seat. Neither of them were smiling.

"Is everything okay?" I said.

Emmett nodded and pressed a key fob the shape of a small fig in his palm, which opened the garage doors. He jumped out and started up his truck, bringing it onto the drive beside the Mercedes.

I shielded my eyes from the rain to watch them. Carlisle had flipped open the trunk, and was handing Emmett rough looking canvas sacks that creased awkwardly about their contents. As Carlisle handed the last one to Emmett, he looked up, catching my eye, with a pained expression across his drenched face.

"What's going on?" I said. "Do you need any help?"

Carlisle shook his head, and came over to me. "There's just something that needs doing," he said. Behind him, Emmett slammed the trunk, and Carlisle clicked his keys at the car. "Come on, lets get inside out of this rain."

I didn't mind the rain. It wasn't like it was cold on my skin or anything.

"What's in the bags?" I said. Neither Carlisle or Emmett acknowledged my question.

"You're gonna have to tell her sooner or later," said Rosalie from behind me. She'd stopped talking to Alice and was now at the top of the steps, no boots, arms crossed over her body. She was sheltered from the rain by a small oak awning over the front door.

"Tell me what?" By the time I looked back to the driveway, Carlisle and Emmett were already walking up the steps towards the front door.

"Rose, its no big deal," Emmett said, his burly arms stretching out towards her with a contorted look across his face. She ducked beneath his outstretched arm wrapping her hands around his back.

"Whatever you say—." she started to say and turned away from me to walk back into the house with Emmett.

"What's no big deal?" I said, following them up the steps. "Are you going somewhere?" I looked back to the cars parked up on the drive. It was an awful lot of bags for a vacation but maybe they had decided to go to the Maldives after all?

"There's just something we need to do," Bella said, coming into view behind Rosalie. She watched me jump the steps and walk back in the house.

"Who's we?"

"Me… and your father," Bella said, pausing to look at Carlisle who was hanging his coat up on the stand. I studied Bella's face.

"You're going away?" I said, with a heightening tone.

"We won't be gone long, in fact we'll be back before you know it," she said.

"Don't leave now, there's no need for you to go anywhere. You only just got back from Dartmouth and I need you here." I felt my face flush. "And what about those strange markings?"

Bella looked to the ground.

"It's nothing, Carlie," Alice chirped. "They can't stay here forever just in case."

"What about you, Rose, are you leaving too?" I said, swiveling round to face her. She smiled at me.

"I'm staying right here with you." She put her hand out. "It'll be just like old times." I took it and looped under her arm, between her and Emmett.

"And we'll be here," Alice said.

"Us too," Esme added, coming down the stairs. She smiled at Carlisle and gave him a kiss. "A week with us can't be that bad, can it?"

"A week?"

"Yeah, it may take a few days to find them again." Alice wandered into the dining room. I followed her in and watched her perch on the great marble table. On its side a huge piece of stone had fallen away, no doubt somewhere on the driveway below. She was looking out of the windows to Emmett's truck below.

"Find who? Where are they going Alice? Why is no one talking to me about this?" I spun round to the doorway where the others were slowly making their way in. Bella's eyes cast to the truck through floor to ceiling windows, then back to Carlisle, biting down on her lip

"We're going back to the Amazon," she said.

"They're going to tell Huilen," Alice said carefully. "It needs to be handled quite delicately, what with their army and Nahuel's so-called prophecy. They were relying on him to help them."

"You know I think Jazz should go too," Carlisle said. "I think it will take all his energy to keep them calm when they see..." Carlisle stopped then raised his voice in the direction of the stairs. "Jasper, are you around?"

There was a silence.

"I'm not leaving him anywhere near Alice." His voice came from one of the bedrooms. A moment later I saw Jasper appear at the top of the stairs, with a brooding expression across his face.

Carlisle looked perplexed. "I think this is slightly more important—."

"Then we'll go together," Alice said, walking back out into the hallway. She smiled up the stairs, then she leapt to Jaspers side, taking both of his hands in hers. Neither spoke for a moment, their eyes locked on one another. "Ben doesn't need babysitting," she said to him.

"Well, if they're going, I'm going," I said. "I can channel it. It would be easier for us all."

Alice shrugged looking to Bella and Carlisle for conformation.

"Carlie, some things are perhaps better not brought to life quite so vividly," Carlisle said.

"Well I don't need to show them but I should still be there."

Bella looked up at me through furrowed brows. "I don't think it's necessary, after all you've been through. Are you sure you even want to come?"

"Yes, I do."

My father walked in through the back doors. "We were naïve taking you last time, Carlie. They're volatile and their sole activity is training for battle, so just this time will you stay here where you're safe?"

I gulped. "Okay," I said, reluctantly, which broke the tension in the room.

"So it's settled," Carlisle said. "Carlie will stay with us. Bella, Edward, Alice and Jasper will go back to Brazil." He patted Emmett on the back as he turned to leave.

"Just one thing," I said. Carlisle swiveled back round.

"Nahuel would want his father, Joham, to know. I know they've not spoken for a long, long time and they didn't necessarily get on but I think it's important." I looked to my father. "Is there any way to get word to him?"

A strange look crossed his face. "I don't think Joham is there to be found," he said. "From what I heard in Nahuel's thoughts, Joham is dead?"

I shook my head. "He would have said something?"

"We'll find out," Bella said, easing her hands round mine.

I nodded uncomfortably before shifting my attentions back to the windows where Emmett's jeep was parked up. In that instant I knew exactly what was in the sacks …the remains of Nahuel's body.


	51. Chapter 51 - Carlie

Chapter Fifty-One: Carlie

School had shut prematurely in the wake of Nahuel's death. Forks was still buzzing about the murder. Reports spattered the papers of tax evasion, and conspiracy theories about this strange man's untimely death.

"How are you feeling, honey?" Bella said, her arm linked with mine as we wandered through the terminal at Sea-Tac Airport.

I shrugged. I felt like I'd lost a limb.

"I just can't understand why Jacob went back for Nahuel. I just wouldn't have put him down as the jealous type and I thought I knew him."

She turned midway through the concourse, her wheely bag spinning round alongside her with a squeak. "Are you kidding? He is the epitome of 'the jealous type'. He doesn't just fall in love, he 'imprints'. Does that not tell you anything?"

She carried on walking towards check-in. A queue had already formed back to the doors, and attendants were advising passengers to have their passports ready.

"I'm worried about him," I said.

She slowed to rummage through the front pocket of the suitcase for her passport, and frowned. "Don't worry, he won't come near, Carlie, the others won't let him."

"What if I want him too?" I said quietly.

She turned to me, her eyebrows drawing together in confusion. "I thought that was—."

"I know, I know, I'm so angry and upset and confused, but right now I feel a bit... torn."

She zipped her bag back up and stared up at me, causing me to twist in embarrassment.

"I just thought things were finally starting to get better between the two of us, like we were finally going somewhere, you know. Then he did… what he did… and that changed everything." I swallowed. "Do you not think it's strange?"

"That's what I said," she replied. "But you know actions speak louder than words. If he can lash out and do something like this over a petty fight, then imagine what he's capable of when the going gets tough. You know what happened to poor Emily when Sam had a moment of weakness. She's scarred for life."

"So, was I wrong to think I was falling in love with him?"

Her face softened. "Oh Carlie."

"All set?" Alice chirped, from somewhere behind me. 'Looking for something Bella?" She giggled and handed over two passports. My father was someway behind, along with Jasper, a number of canvas bags heading for special cargo and a well-worded doctor's note.

Rosalie and I watched their departure from the airlounge before heading into Seattle for want of a distraction to end the day.

The next morning, I was up and out early, hunting around the highlands of the Issaquah Alps with Carlisle and Emmett. Unlike the women of our family, they wouldn't want to talk feelings, and unlike my father, they wouldn't be able to hear mine. It turned out to be the perfect start to the day. I barely thought of Jacob or my parents and the feed did much to clear my head.

It was sometime between catching the white-tailed deer and the mountain lion that I remembered something that I'd been meaning to ask Carlisle for quite some time.

I found Carlisle some distance away wrapped within a fold of dense bushes. He was flat on the ground with an elk in his hands, guzzling desperately at its hide. I waited while he finished the creature off, trying not to watch. He didn't appear to be surprised by my presence. Then he discarded the carcass beneath the prickly bedding.

"Carlie," he said, hiding his teeth behind his lips. It took a few moments for the warmth in his eyes to return. "Are you done?"

I nodded, waiting for some indication that he was too. He rose to meet me out on the steep hillside. As he approached I fell in line beside him, and allowed him to lead us both down the mountain.

"Carlisle, can I ask you something?"

"Sure." He panned around for sight of Emmett. I hadn't seen him for a while.

"Who's Sofia Alonzo?" I said.

This time, he didn't conceal his surprise.

"Well... that's not a name I've heard for a very long time." He took a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed his impeccably clean mouth. "How on earth did you hear of her?"

"The treaty," I said, sheepishly.

His eyes narrowed slightly; not exactly anger, perhaps just mild concern.

"We've never mentioned her before," he said, "so seeing her signature at the bottom of the treaty must have come as quite a shock?"

I nodded, watching his expression contort.

"Who is she anyway? Is she a vampire?"

"Who was she more like... and yes, she was a vampire, a very old vampire." His eyes flashed with sadness.

"Was?"

He nodded, pursing his lips slightly. "I met her in the late nineteen hundreds, during my time with the Volturi. If you can consider Esme to be like the earth; grounded and nurturing, then Sofia was the fire. She was strong-willed, flamboyant and free-spirited."

"You were with this woman?"

He paused, for a millisecond. "Briefly."

We walked on quietly.

"Her unquenchable thirst and her stubbornness took her in unsavory directions," he continued, eventually. "It brought all those traits I hated most about myself to the surface. Maybe it was Sofia who helped me find who I really was by showing me that which I could never be."

We walked on. Underfoot the grassy plains thickened.

"So what happened?" I said.

"I outgrew the Volturi and that's when we went our separate ways. She wanted to stay in Italy. I came to America and in time I found your father, then Esme, then Rosalie. It was just the four of us back then, but I never forgot about Sofia. I can't describe what she was like, but I always felt like she needed my help. It's hard to explain."

"Try me," I said. It was no longer steep and our walk slowed to a meander.

"The way we split. I always felt at some level I'd let her down. It was not a personal thing so much. She cared little for others and enemies grew in her shadow before she'd even realized she'd overstepped the mark. I tried to protect her from her own bad habits. It is not always easy being a vampire; there are always greater powers in play."

"Like the Volturi?"

Carlisle sighed. "It was all my fault," he said. "I shouldn't have got her involved."

We hit a hikers trail and followed it along a wide open track.

"What happened?" I asked, looking up at him as we walked. A crease had formed across his brow.

"I had adapted to a completely vegetarian way of life with the others here in Forks, the first time we settled here. Everything was going well for us and I was proud of it, proud of the new life I led. It was the first time I'd established a completely integrated existence. I'd tried it before, but with the moderate successes came the unsubtle scrutiny. No vampire could respect my decision as none of them had the willpower nor the inclination to try it. Yet, with Esme, Edward and Rosalie, we made it work. We'd broken through that painful barrier that others could not and rather than mock each other, we congratulated ourselves on our overwhelming achievement.

"I wrote to Sofia to tell her. I don't know why I thought she'd care, but I was so proud and it reached her at a time when she needed out. She had stayed in Italy and generated too much noise for herself so I was only too happy to offer her a place to lay low for a while. It was never meant to be permanent.

"I thought in my naivety that I could convert her to our way of life and she'd release all the anger that she carried. I assumed that she would be able to adapt, that she would want to..." Like I had with Nahuel.

He sniffed at the air and twisted round in the direction of another rolling hill. "Emmett's travelled quite a distance today," he commented, taking us off on a tangent. "Anyway, Sofia did indeed accept my invitation, and came up to Forks, and she settled in fine.

"It had only been a couple of months, but that spring we were caught hunting in the forests near La Push by Ephraim Black and his companions. Sofia was with us when we drew a truce and promised to keep the lands sacred and she was with us when we signed the treaty."

"So she turned completely vegetarian?"

"Yes," he said.

We slowed at a cattle gate. We could have leapt over it without drawing breath, but with any pedestrian routes, we stopped and climbed the wooden steps just in case there were humans nearby. I took a deep breath; the taste of deer caught on the tip of my tongue with the faint fragrance of Emmett.

"So," Carlisle continued, walking on. "I didn't waste a second worrying whether Sofia would fit in or be able to stay away from humans. She was part of the family and I trusted her inexplicably as I do all my family. I should have remembered that she was wild like the lions; too strong, too long gone and too stubborn to ever change."

He thrust his hands into his pockets, eyes cast to the dirt track ahead.

"She was lying?" I said.

He rocked his head from side to side. "Not lying exactly, just not strong enough. She said she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was a barman up in Port Angeles who was taking a load of empty bottles out to the bins and it caught her off guard. That led her into a binge; four people in all, and in her volatile state she left a mess of their bodies in her wake."

His face looked strained.

I could only think of the treaty. By the very fact that Carlisle was still around to tell the tale must have meant that he'd negotiated with them and come to an understanding.

"So the wolves let you off?" I said. "They just sought revenge on Sofia?"

"Not exactly."

"I don't understand. Then what? The treaty clearly states only one punishment - annihilation. It doesn't differentiate between vampires. The threat was clearly for us all—."

"We kept it from them," Carlisle cut in.

"You didn't tell them?" I said, astonished. Carlisle was the fore-bearer of moral democracy; the godfather of all principles I had ever known.

"It's not something I'm proud of, Carlie, but I couldn't tell them. The ink was barely dry on the paperwork that I'd orchestrated. We'd come so close to a war with the wolves over our differences in the first place. It was not an easy decision for them to spare us like they did. It still isn't." His voice petered off. "Everything we'd sworn to the Quileutes went up like smoke in the instant she turned. How could I tell them the truth?"

He squinted up at the sun which for a moment threatened to rip through the clouds. "I've not thought of Sofia for many decades," he said. "But when I do, I comfort myself that she wouldn't have survived no matter where she was. There are rules to follow in this existence..."

"Then what actually happened to Sofia if the wolves never knew about her attacks?"

Carlisle paused.

"She turned on us, made it clear she had no intention of respecting this place." He watched my face register his words. "Carlie, we couldn't risk the wolves finding out, and she made it clear that she had no allegiance to us." He came to a stop and settled onto a large boulder that jutted out from a relatively flat plain. "Things came to a head."

"And what, you killed her?" I said, my voice loud. I stopped walking. Carlisle didn't immediately turn to face me, but when he did, I saw his eyes full of remorse.

"No, we didn't kill her, of course not… but when the Volturi came for her, we did not intervene."

I sucked in my breath, my eyes wide with shock. "You told them she was here?" I said.

"We didn't have to. They knew all along. It was just a matter of time. They had their own private vendetta to settle and we wanted no part of it. It doesn't make it any easier to come to terms with now after all these years Carlie, but I still believe it was the right decision not to tell the Quileutes. We ensured that no negative repercussions could come back to haunt us. It was that decision alone that enabled us to show our faces in Forks again. Otherwise, we would always have been running from them. It would have been a war with the wolves, and we weren't prepared to shed anymore blood."

We walked on, and the scent of Emmett thickened. All around us the air was laced with animal blood.

From what Alice and Jasper had told me, the leaders of the Volturi were lazy. They sent messengers to do their dirty work, while they enjoyed the home delicacies of Volterra. I couldn't imagine that Caius, Aro or Marcus would have left Italy to come for Sofia, but then they had left Volterra for me, back when I was a baby.

"Did they know about Sofia's binge?" I said.

Carlisle raised his eyebrows. "The Volturi? I'm not so sure they'd care. That of all things is permitted."

Four innocent people.

"Did Jacob's grandfather never asked after her? Did they never notice her disappearance?"

"Our relationship with the wolves was not like it is now," he said. "We never spoke nor crossed paths. They would never come near us and of course we were forbidden from their lands as we still are today."

We both walked on, consumed with remorse.

"There are many things I regret, Carlie, and one of them is bringing Sofia here... to her death."

"As I did to Nahuel." It was the first time I had said it aloud and the words stung.

"Carlie, I understand the emotions you must be feeling over him right now," he added, looking over at me. "The guilt twists within my gut like a jagged knife every time I think of Sofia. Could I have helped her more. But in this instance, you really didn't do anything wrong. Jacob did."

"But if I hadn't taken Nahuel to my stupid, irrelevant prom, he would never have met Jacob. I took him there to antagonize Jake, I wound the whole thing up. He didn't even have a chance to break the rules."

"There you guys are," Emmett said. "I've been looking all over for you." He ran towards us with a thick smile.

"You ready?" Carlisle said, jumping up.

"Yup," I replied, looking to Emmett who was still smiling and now nodding too.

We meandered back off-road and the conversation moved on to much lighter topics, like who had feasted on the best animal and how fresh the mountain blood was up here. It was neither warm nor sunny for a mid-summer day, so we didn't come across many hikers on our travels, which allowed us to run fast. We slowed when the foliage around us turned familiar.

We'd cut across the forests up by the school and found ourselves close to the high school gym. It was all locked up. Since Nahuel's body was found, it had turned into a crime scene. Now the police tape had been stripped back, the place was like a ghost town. We walked through, our heads hung slightly. If there had been any lingering scent of Jake or Nahuel, it had been washed away by the heavy rains. Now the air just felt close, with the occasional stiff breeze.

"Hey," Emmett said. "Check this out." He looked around before jumping up onto the lower branches of a nearby tree. I didn't need to climb it to see what it was he'd spotted. There on the trunk were three horizontal lines sliced into the bark.

"More?" Carlisle said. We both come forward for a closer look. They were exactly the same as the ones back home, around the cottage. Carlisle looked perplexed. "It's strange," he said. "Someone is definitely making these, but why?" He shook his head. "Edward said the ones in the Amazon were quite old and weathered, yet the ones in our forest are fairly recent, and these, well, they're brand new... could be a week old, max."

Emmett ran his left hand over them, then put one finger in his mouth. "Weird," he said, "doesn't taste of anything. Like Mississippi." He shrugged and jumped down from the branches.

"And there's more over there," I said, running over to the back of the science block. We took two minutes or so searching the trees that ran around the back of the school. In addition to the one he'd seen, I found another two behind the gym, and Carlisle found one out in the woods. He started pacing just like my father had the other day.

"Are they evenly spaced?" I said, although I already knew they would be. He nodded back at Emmett and I.

"Five in total," Carlisle said, his expression contorted. "What did you mean, Emmett, when you said it was like Mississippi? You saw these markings down there?"

"No," Emmett said, "but they just reminded me of this lady we saw down there, that's all. Forget I mentioned it."

Emmett looked ready to dismiss the whole conversation, but Carlisle drew closer to him. "Tell me about her?"

"Well." Emmett sucked in his breath. "This old woman... she was covered in jewelry, and I mean tons of the stuff; heavy earrings, necklaces that almost covered her turtleneck, rings on every finger, and each one bore markings on them."

"These markings?" I said, "she had lines on her jewelry?"

"No, not lines, but always in threes. Three skulls in a line, three spirals in a line, three dots in a line. They were always identical, and always one on top of the other, like these markings. Then, when this old lady saw me, she immediately started backing away, muttering some foreign language under her breath."

Carlisle was watching Emmett. "Latin?" He asked.

"I don't know," Emmett said, "I couldn't catch a single word, but I was sure she knew what I was."

Carlisle frowned. "Could she have been a vampire?"

"No, definitely not. Her scent was human, but thick and musty like incense. She seemed afraid of me, but then down there, the place is full of voodoo and stuff so I just put it down to that," Emmett said.

"Did you keep tabs on her?" Carlisle said. "We don't want her causing any trouble."

"It was twenty-five years ago, Carlisle. Although at the time I did try to keep an eye on her, but I'd already lost her in the crowd. I told Rosalie about her when we hooked back up, and I was quite surprised when not long after, Rose spotted this old lady in the crowd. I couldn't see her, so I told Rose to describe her... and sure enough, she described her exactly as I had seen her; black clothes, long earrings, tons of necklaces that went down to her waist with stuff on them. She even picked up on the musty scent."

I perched on a low tree stump and continued to gaze at Emmett as he spoke.

"But this is the weird thing," Emmett continued, "when I was asking Rosalie to keep on describing this old woman, she turned to me and said, 'why don't you just look yourself, she's only ten feet in front of you,' but when I looked up there was no one there."

"She'd run away?" Carlisle said.

"Nope, she was standing right there. Rose was watching her."

"A gift of invisibility?" I said. Already I could feel goose-bumps running up my arms.

"She made herself invisible just to you?" Carlisle said, his eyebrows raised. "What about her scent?"

"You got it," Emmett said. "From being all musty, the air became clean, just like these markings. It was like the scent had been removed."

Carlisle jumped up and smelt the markings from the nearest tree. "That is one very interesting trick," he mused. "Do you think the two are connected?" He said.

"Well... we have markings in sets of three, and no scent... I'd say the two are pretty similar. Maybe the markings are the root of the ability?"

"I've been around a long time," Carlisle said, "and I've never seen anything like this. Gifts are unique from within. They're not something that can be chanted and captured. You're talking about witchcraft."

Emmett shrugged. "Is that so inconceivable? Nahuel's been searching for a witch for years to fulfil his prophecy. How else would I have not been able to see this old lady, but Rose could? She wasn't a vampire, but a human could not possess a power so strong. She muttered words I couldn't understand, she had all these funny symbols all over her and kaboom, I never saw her again."

I started walking away from them, my mind puzzling. Ben was human and his gift was strong. Alice's too, back in that asylum. But failing that, was it possible that some kind of spell had masked Emmett's sight, and the old lady's scent?

Certainly it seemed coincidental, but the old lady saw Emmett twenty-five years ago and she knew what he was. If she was old back then, then she'd probably be dead by now. But what if she wasn't? What if she was coming back for him after all these years?

I spun around and started heading back towards Emmett and Carlisle. They hadn't moved an inch since I'd left their sides.

"So, that old lady is here in Forks?" I said.

"Do you think she's come to find you?" Carlisle added. "After all this time."

"Hell no," Emmett replied. "That old lady isn't here. She wanted to get as far away from me as possible." He nodded in the direction of the school parking lot and started walking. "I've not been here for ages," he commented, glancing to the empty spaces.

"So what _do _you think, Emmett?" I said, looking up at him. He jumped into the woodlands across the road from the school gates.

"I think someone is using these symbols like that old lady did to make themselves invisible and cover their tracks."


	52. Chapter 52 - Carlie

Chapter Fifty-Two: Carlie

I left Emmett and Carlisle at the main house and went round the back in the direction of the cottage. My path trailed off on a tangent, weaving through the dense forest that followed the lay of the valley. With my eyes set on the far distance, my mind lapsed back to the Amazon. Whoever had made the markings here, had also been there, to Nahuel's coven. As crazy as it sounded, could Nahuel have etched them? If he had stumbled upon the spell or whatever it was, then was that how he had kept himself safe from the Volturi for all those years? Maybe it wasn't the waterfall that masked his scent, maybe there were symbols hidden in the rocks?

But Carlisle had dated the lines around my cottage to approximately a month ago before Nahuel came back to Forks with us. It couldn't have been him.

I pulled my cell from my pocket and started tapping in the numbers.

"Mom?" I said, after what seemed like an inordinate amount of beeps.

"Nessie!" She exclaimed, down the phone.

"Have you met up with them yet?" There was such a crackle on the line that I found myself shouting just to get heard.

"Not yet, we're trying a new route. Your father wanted to fly, so we're just at an Brazilian airfield."

"What? You can't take plane into the jungle."

She laughed. "Not a plane, sweetie. A helicopter. Jazz will pilot it."

"Oh. Well will you call when you've seen them."

"Of course," she said. A great whirring started up in the background.

"Mom?" I said.

"I think we're gonna have to go, hon."

"No, wait. I wanna ask you something?" I said. "You know those horizontal lines we've been seeing?"

The phone crackled. "I can hardly hear you, sweetie. Can we talk when we get back to the airfield?"

"Those lines, mom. We've found them all around the place where Nahuel was killed. Emmett thinks they may be something to do with invisibility? Do you know anything about that?"

"The whirring sound jumped up a notch. "I can't hear you but I really have to go," she said. "I'll ask your father about inviting them back and call you when I can."

I was about to repeat the word 'invisibility', but the line went dead. Great.

I stowed my cell away and looked up to a silvery-grey fuzz flash across my peripheral vision. Not even a second later, another flash of fur streaked across the bushes ahead. Then it rested by the trees, flashing jet-black almond eyes.

"I can see you Leah, so you can stop spying on me." My voice bounced across the river.

The grey fur winced back, retreating behind a heavy cluster of shrubberies. I started to run after her, but it set her off on the defensive and she bounded away. I chased her over the river, and through the forest for some time before I hit the main road.

Jacob must have sent her to check up on me, because he was too scared to return. Too scared to own up to what he'd done.

Leah leapt across the road before a red pickup truck came into view. I slowed, shrinking back into the trees until it passed. By the time it was out of sight, so was Leah. I crossed the road anyway, and scoured around.

"I know you can hear me Leah," I shouted into the distance. "So stay away from me." I heard nothing, and started to wonder whether she was indeed out of earshot. Well at least she'd have nothing to report back. I was getting on with my life just fine without him. At least I hoped that's what she'd deduce.

I didn't follow Leah any farther. She was headed back to the Reservation, and I didn't want to go there. Not after what Jacob had done. Although I felt ready to see him again, if nothing more than to hear his explanation, I just couldn't. I thought of Sofia Alonzo. She'd committed the most heinous of crimes but not even Carlisle, who had once loved her, was prepared to protect her. That's how I must be; I mustn't let my heart eclipse what was right, and his actions were definitely not right.

I turned back to cross the road again, but had to wait while another car passed. After a few moments, I heard thick breathing from behind me. I spun round, convinced it would be him; that Leah was simply luring me away from home so Jacob could speak to me without my family around.

But it wasn't, it was Leah again.

After a moment she turned from me and phased back into human form; the bare skin of her back came into view partly exposing her sharp shoulder blades through the wisps of silky black hair. She pulled a plain T-shirt over her head, then turned meeting my gaze.

"What were you doing over by my house, Leah?" I said. "Did Jacob send you? Are you spying on me now?"

She advanced gingerly towards me. "No," she said, walking with an awkwardness that held her feet back. "But we should probably talk about Jacob."

I sighed and started to move away. "I'm not interested, I'm done with Jacob and his fights and I don't appreciate him sending a messenger."

"He didn't send me," she snapped back. "And I wasn't planning to talk to you, to even have this discussion. Besides we should be the ones angry at you for that fight. Sam is so mad he forbade us from coming near."

"At me? So why did you, Leah?"

She twisted on the spot and ushered me further into the forest away from the passing traffic on the road. "Now that we are talking about it, it would be helpful to know exactly what Jake told you when he came here, the morning after the fight." As she spoke, pained lines creased her forehead.

"Why?" I said.

Surely she'd already know his story; presumably they'd devised it together?

"We don't know exactly what went on, and we're trying to get to the bottom of it." Leah's hazel eyes filled with a sorrow the depth of the ocean, but she brushed her hand over her face defiantly and tried to pick up her stoic demeanor.

"Jacob killed Nahuel," I said. "That was bad enough. But it's over now. The End. I have no wish to discuss it with you and no wish to further any kind of relationship with him."

I turned away from her. The road was empty. It would be a good time to cross. It was painful enough to think about Jacob. It brought back the longing and the anger and the confusion which all tugged at my heartstrings, tangling them into a thick knot of pain. I must be strong like Carlisle.

I took a breath and headed away from her, but she followed avidly behind like a dog on a tight lead, never letting more than a foot of air between us as she strode.

"The end? The end of what?"

"Don't you get it Leah? He can't just go around killing people and expect me to be fine with it. There's a line in this mad little cocoon we live in, and he's done plenty, believe me. I turn a blind eye to all the wanderers he goes for, but Nahuel? Really? Friends. Family. They're the line, and he just ripped it apart."

"Even for self-defence?"

Good one Leah. Like I hadn't seen that one coming.

"Yeah, whatever. I'm sick of it all, and most of all I'm sick of him hurting me. So enough. Once and for all, enough. I never want to see him again." Even as I said it, I knew the words weren't true. I wanted him to explain himself. I wanted him to be sorry and for things to go back to normal but how could it. It is not what Carlisle would do. His example with Sofia proved how moral he was, and how I shouldn't just overlook this, even if it was just one death not four. If I made excuses for Jacob now, I'd always be making them.

Leah sucked in her breath. "So that's it?"

I nodded into the trees. From the corner of my eye I saw confusion sweep across her face.

"Come on Leah, it's not like you thought it could ever work?"

She squirmed slightly, twisting her lips.

"So now it's official, and when you see him you can tell him that. Who were we kidding; a vampire and a werewolf, I mean come on..."

She paused. "So you can turn your emotions off just like that?"

"I can when he murders my friends," I said.

"And that's what I don't get. Why would he do that? Why would he destroy your Latin friend?"

I shuddered. Being destroyed made it sound so much worse. "Oh, I don't know, jealousy? Anger? Upset? Immaturity? Name any one you want. He couldn't bear that there was another half-blood like me. It didn't matter that we had made up at prom. We sorted everything out and put it behind us. And then Nahuel punched him. I get it, he just couldn't help himself. He just had to retaliate." I thought back to the kiss in my high school gym. It had sparked a desire in me that I never knew existed. How quickly those feelings of love or lust or whatever it was had spiraled into such hate and animosity. Leah had gone quiet, clearly chewing over my last sentence with some thought.

"You made up at the prom? So it worked…"

"Yeah." Whatever it was she was talking about.

"...but then he killed the vampire anyway?" Her eyebrows knotted together as her gaze fell to the floor. "It just doesn't stack up, Carlie. I know Jacob, I know him like a brother, and I also know how badly he wanted to sort things out with you. He loves you." She glowered at me with a loaded expression. "And if, as you say, you made up, then the imprinting would still bind you both and he would never have gone after Nahuel, never."

I picked at the bark on a nearby trunk; anything so not to look at her. "I don't know, Leah. I don't understand imprinting, I'm not one of you. But the damage has been done. No matter what possessed him to do it in the first place, his actions outweigh any bind that the two of us may have. Imagine if it was me he was angry with and he lashed out like that." She shook her head profusely. I flicked the charcoaled birch into the air and started to walk away from her.

"Why don't you just ask him yourself?" I said over my shoulder. "In fact." I spun around. "Why don't you know all this already, Leah? Surely it was there in his thoughts, after all its not every day you kill a half-blood." I emphasized the last words sourly and then swung round to cross the road.

She didn't advance after me but called out, "because he's gone, Carlie. He's just disappeared."

It's one thing to lose someone, a human. They drive off, turn off their cell, and bingo, they've actually vanished off the radar. But to lose a wolf was something else. Not only was Jacob their alpha, their leader, he was also there in their thoughts. It was impossible to keep secrets between them. It was impossible to disappear.

Unless you were dead.

"His thoughts?" I asked, although I already knew the answer.

"Nothing," she replied. "We've been looking for him round the clock. The pack, geez, the whole tribe have been out there looking. That's why I was up near your place. I was desperate. I thought, despite everything, he could be with you." I felt the air escape me but didn't dare look back, trying to hide my concern. "I'm starting to think he's not there to be found," she added quietly.

I didn't want to feel this way. Jacob had always been more than able to look after himself.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" I snapped.

"You wanted nothing to do with him, remember. You never wanted to see him again, and your family were pretty much in agreement over that one."

But he'd disappeared. That was not like Jake. If he was sulking, I imagined he would do it at the Res.

"Where was he seen last?"

"At your place, the day they found the body," she said, in barely an audible whisper.

I flicked around to where Leah stood amongst the red cedars. "I saw him at the house. He was down on the driveway. I presumed he went back to La Push. Where else is there to go?"

"Well he never returned," she said, "and I've not heard him in his wolf form since." Her eyes started pooling with tears and she looked up at the sky, her face taut. "We managed to trace his scent from your place to Berty's diner on Jefferson. The waitress didn't think he was there very long as someone came for him."

"What do you mean?" I said. "Who?"

"She couldn't remember, she was just surprised he left a full mug of coffee on the table. She also said he asked for a pen and paper. So while we were there we hunted around the place and this is what we found." She unfolded a crumpled piece of paper in her hands and held it out for me.

Dear Carlie,

If you get this, he has already found me

and it is probably too late. You need to...

It stopped mid-sentence leaving three quarters of the page blank.

"I don't understand," I said. "Why did he not finish it? What did he want me to do?" My voice rose louder and Leah looked perplexed. "Why did you not think to bring this to me earlier?"

She glared at me. "Well I'm bringing it to you now."

I studied it again. "And who is he that Jake is referring to? Is that the person that met him in the diner?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"No, should it be?"

She sighed with the kind of reluctance I had grown so accustomed to; half anger and half sheer frustration.

"It has to be Demetri, of course," she said.

I froze.

"What? Demetri from the Volturi?"

She nodded.

"But that's ridiculous," I said. "Why would you think of him? What reason could he possibly have to target Jacob?"

"Because he and Nahuel were fighting against Jacob in the forest." She looked at me like I was stupid. "Did he not tell you this?"

Did he tell me anything?

"I never let him explain," I whispered, taking a step back. "But Nahuel hated the Volturi, he hated Demetri. He would never have fought alongside him."

"Unless Nahuel saw Jake as the greater threat," she said. "They're both vampires Carlie. That counts for a lot."

"No." I shrunk back further into the forest. "He wouldn't of..." I paused for long enough for a car to pass by. "You're saying that Demetri and Nahuel somehow hooked up and went after Jacob together?"

"I'm not saying that. I don't know who started the fight."

I shook my head. The whole thing didn't stack up. "It's still not possible. We would know if Demetri was in Forks, Alice would have foreseen it."

"I'm not lying," she snapped, with a faint growl between her teeth. "Demetri was there, I saw him."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Okay, so even if he was there, there's no reason for him to launch on Jake or Nahuel."

"So you think it was all Jacob's fault?"

"No, but I didn't know there was a third person in the fight," I screeched back. "How I reacted before was the logical conclusion to seeing his venom scars and a dead vampire clawed to pieces and scattered over a field like manure..."

"Demetri nearly killed Jacob," she said. "If as you say he hated Nahuel or Nahuel hated him or whatever, then there's no reason why Demetri couldn't have killed him too. Jacob phased so late, we only just got there in time." Her gaze fell back in time to the events of last week. "Something is so wrong about this."

"Leah, you must come back to the house with me," I said, marching towards her. She flinched backwards, quite unprepared for my sudden speed.

"But the others were quite insistent about us visiting, Carlie. They won't give me a chance to explain. If Jasper even sees me—."

"He won't see you, he's not even here. Come on, we have no time to lose."

I dragged her arm and reluctantly she followed in the direction of the house, jumping the road then the river before padding through the foliage. After several minutes, we reached the familiar trees that laced the grounds, but it wasn't until the white rendered corner of the roof protruded into the sky that Leah slowed, hanging back in the undergrowth. Between warped branches, figures moved in the lounge.

"It's alright Leah, they need to hear this," I said. I rocked my head in the direction of the dwelling. "Lets go."

But she didn't advance, looking past me and into the great house. "Who's with them?" She said, shrinking further back into the undergrowth.

"Oh, it'll be Ben, he's staying with us." I pushed my hand out for hers but she didn't accept.

"Another strange vampire?" She said.

"No, he's not a vampire. He doesn't know anything, well not really. Look it's a long story for another time."

She looked at me then squinted back at the house in confusion.

"Well, that guy is not a Cullen, and he is definitely no human. It almost looks like..."

I spun around focusing straight in on the hallway. There was a stranger indeed although he was partially obscured from my vision by the outer wall. I pushed Leah slightly for a better view. Through the small round window, I could make out a lean frame and the edge of a youthful but ashen white face. Sandy hair fell in waves around it. In front of him, was the lithe body of Esme; she was closest but it was Carlisle who spoke.

"Demetri, what a surprise it is to see you here, my friend," he said, with neither a smile nor a frown.


	53. Chapter 53 - Carlie

Chapter Fifty-Three: Carlie

Leah shrunk back out of sight, rustling the twigs underfoot. "It's him, it's him," she said, in a whisper, "he's here."

"How quickly the years have passed, Carlisle, my old friend," the voice replied from the hallway with the same emptiness. Behind them in the sitting room, Rosalie and Emmett stood motionless.

If I'd had any doubts about Leah's story then this was the moment I truly believed her. Demetri was well and truly in Forks.

She pulled on my arm, yanking me back into the foliage with more force than I expected. Through her grip, I felt her start to quiver; a ripple of the spine I knew only too well. I let her drag me through the entangled foliage for some way. She didn't falter until we were well out of earshot, then her back arched and the tremor became more fluid.

"No Leah, don't phase," I begged, "you've got to try to fight it, you've not told me what happened yet."

"I can't help—." She was cut off as huge wisps of grey russet fur burst out over her body. Seconds later, almond-shaped canine eyes looked back at me, framing a panting tongue and sharpened teeth. The remains of her clothes fell to the floor.

_Great, now what do I do? She'll never turn back without clothes._

"Leah, get the others," I said. "Meet me at the boundary line, where the back road meets the forest along the crest of that really jagged hill. I'll wait for the others." I couldn't tell if it was a nod or not but her soft glossy mane swished before she turned into the trees. Within seconds she was gone.

_Don't panic Carlie._ There must be a logical explanation. Demetri was clearly involved in Nahuel's death. Maybe he'd been the one to kill him? But why? I fell to the floor. With my weight on my arms I glided like a snake through the undergrowth until I could just about hear their voices again.

"We thought an army of newborns were being created down in California," Demetri was saying. His voice was slightly muffled through the glass of the house but I could live with that; if I could hear them, then they no doubt would be able to hear me.

"There were a lot of trails that were starting to become too obvious," he continued, "and it was thought that we might be needed to intervene."

"And was there anything?" Carlisle said.

"Only a handful, not an army by any means," he said, "There will be no more problems now." I crawled forward slightly like an army cadet, arching my back to see his partly precluded form. He was looking down towards the others, who were now hidden from my view by the outer wall of the house. "But seeing as I was over in this neck of the woods," he continued, "I thought it would be rude of me not to stop by on my way back and say hello."

"It is good of you to come so far out of your way," I heard Carlisle say.

"Has there been had any trouble up here lately, what with those wolves so close?" Demetri said.

"We try not to associate with them," said Rosalie, her voice echoing from the heart of the lounge.

With that he chuckled loudly. "Ah, so you finally came to your senses. I don't know what you saw in those filthy mutts anyway." There was a silence and after a few moments, it was Demetri who spoke again, "And where are the others?" His voice sounded inquisitive but yet somehow contrived. I wished I could see their expressions.

Esme answered after a moment. "They are off hunting I'm afraid. They should be back soon, would you care to wait?"

"No, no, I wouldn't dream of imposing on you so long," he replied a little too quickly. "In fact I better be getting on my way, it's a long way back to Volterra." There was a rustling from the house.

"Then you must send our regards to Aro, Caius and Marcus," Carlisle said. "It was good of you to stop by. It's been a long time."

"I will do and you must visit us next time you're in Italy. Caius is intrigued to see how the young one, Renesmee, has developed." I shivered at the mention of my name.

"We will be sure to," Carlisle said, and there was a creak as the door swung open.

"Oh, before I go," Demetri said. "I wonder if you have seen anything of that other vampire we met last time we were in Forks? The one born of a human mother."

There was a pause.

"Nahuel?" Esme said, carefully.

"That's right. Nahuel. I'd forgotten his name," Demetri replied. "We were very impressed by him when we saw him last. I don't suppose you'd know where I could find him?"

"Not sure where he lives," Emmett said. "It's a shame Alice and Jasper are out, they found him last time."

"It is a shame indeed," Demetri replied.

"We'll let you know if we ever come across him again," Rosalie added.

"You do that," Demetri said, his voice sickly sweet. Seconds later the front door thronged shut.

There was no conversation from the house, presumably for the same reason that I was still hiding face down in dirt, in the middle of the forest. I tried to count to a thousand to ensure that Demetri would be well away. Now I couldn't even concentrate on the numbers. All I could think of was what had happened between Nahuel, Jacob and Demetri that night. Jacob and Nahuel could have been fighting, and Demetri had intervened? But Demetri wouldn't have entered into a fight he couldn't win. Unless, he had won. Unless he had come back for Jacob the following day?

"It was a risk saying the others would be back soon," I heard from the house in a small voice. It was sharp and clear. Rosalie. "They're probably two if not three days away still. Imagine if he had waited…"

I pulled myself up off the floor and started to make my way towards the house.

"He would never have waited," Esme replied. "Did you not see the way he reacted? He's scared of Edward."

"Which means he's holding something back and he didn't want Edward to find out," said Carlisle. "Newborns in California, tsk."

"But why would he come over if he had something to hide?" Emmett said. "Surely that would be too risky for him if Edward was here to read his thoughts?"

"Unless he knew Edward and the others were out of town—." Carlisle said. I heard slightly echoed footsteps. It was unlikely, but it sounded like Carlisle was pacing the kitchen area.

"Which would mean he's been watching us," Rosalie said. She raised her voice. "I told you, Esme, these things always come in threes."

I brushed the dirt off my jeans and started running towards the house.

"So why come inside if he knows they're away?" Esme said, ignoring Rose.

"To confirm his suspicions," Carlisle responded, "see which of us are here?"

"Or gauge our reactions first hand when he mentioned Nahuel?" Emmett said.

"Yeah, what was that about?" Rose replied. "He knows something doesn't he? That's why you lied."

"Come on Rose. The guy didn't even flinch when I said I didn't know where he lived," Emmett said. "He didn't ask why we'd not seen him, or if we had any plans to meet up. He didn't ask anything. He was testing us."

"So then we failed," Esme said, confused.

"I'm not so sure," Emmett said. "If he's up to something, and it has anything to do with Nahuel, then we'd do well to distance ourselves as far away as possible from it. We don't want them back do we?"

"No, we most certainly do not," Carlisle said. "But lets consider the facts for a moment. Nahuel comes to Forks, Jacob kills him - for whatever reason - and a week later Demetri pays us a visit."

"It's all too coincidental for my liking," Esme said. Through the window I saw her sit down on the arm of the sofa, and straighten an oversized cushion by her side. I made my way over.

"Exactly," Carlisle said. "What's Demetri up to?"

"Do you think he knows that Nahuel's dead?" Rosalie said. She was looking out of the window and saw me as I approached. She smiled in acknowledgement then turned back round to face the others. "Unless he's pieced it together from their scents. Carlie said the stench of Nahuel's decomposed blood was strong. Maybe he's had a good guess at what's happened from the smells in the woods by the school?"

"It would be easy for him to know," I said, walking in through the back door, "seeing as he was there that night in the woods with Nahuel and Jake."

Four incredulous gazes swept upon me.

"How do you know?" Emmett said, leaning forward on his knees from his crouched position. He glanced at the dirt all over my clothes.

"Leah saw him." I turned to the others; four dubious faces. "She did," I said, trying not to sound perplexed. "She's trying to help us."

"Or push the blame from Jacob?" Rose said. "It seems they don't like being in our bad books."

"I believe her," I said. "She knew Demetri was there."

"But there's a couple of flaws in Leah's statement," Esme said in a calm voice. She scooped her hair up into a low loose knot. "If Demetri really was here in Forks, Alice would have foreseen it—."

"That's what I said."

"And afterwards we would have smelt it," Esme continued. Emmett and Carlisle exchanged a curious glance. "If they'd known, they probably wouldn't have gone to the Amazon."

"I don't know how Esme, but Demetri must have evaded her visions. You should have seen Leah's face, she was telling the truth."

"So what did happen that night?" Emmett said. "Who started the fight between Nahuel and Jacob?"

"She didn't get the chance to tell me the whole story but she is willing to, but we have to go now."

We raced through the back streets, down the long stretch to La Push. I'd already decided I'd let Leah tell them about Jacob's disappearance in context.

As a tracker, Demetri was the leader in his field, but even he could not surpass Alice's vision. Maybe she had been too distracted keeping Ben away from Jasper to notice? Or maybe Demetri had stayed close to someone that blocked her visions, like the wolves, or me? That scenario frightened me more than anything.

"Mom, pick up," I said, panting into the phone as I ran. It was her voicemail. "Demetri's in Forks, and we don't know why. You need to come home now," I said and hung up.

It was Sam I saw first beside Seth and Leah. He looked away defiantly to the beady eyes that shone from out of the shadows around us; a subtle reminder that they were just as powerful as we were. Leah waited until Carlisle, Rosalie, Emmett and I had assembled in front of her before speaking.

"Has he gone?" Leah said to us across the invisible treaty line.

"I don't know, we should be quick," I said.

"Leah, what do you know?" Carlisle started. "Carlie said you actually saw Demetri?"

She nodded, earnestly.

"What has he got to do with all of this?" Carlisle continued.

"It's… it's what I think Jake was trying to tell you," she said, fumbling with the end of yet another T-shirt.

"Leah, start from the beginning," I said. "Remember we don't know anything." I crossed onto their side. It irritated the wolves to watch, but no one moved. I pulled her closer to where Carlisle and Emmett stood. For the first time she looked timid.

"Well, it was Thursday night," she started, stealing a glance behind her. "I was on watch, along with Seth, running the perimeter." Seth smiled back at her in encouragement. "It wasn't until the sky brightened - so it must have been sixish - that I heard Jacob in my thoughts. It was all so quick. He just kept saying Demetri's name over and over."

"I howled for the others," Seth added, "but Leah was already running. She was much nearer."

"Yeah," Leah said. "It's a fair run from La Push to the school, even from the boundary perimeter. All along the way I picked up on stray thoughts from Jacob. He's almost unintelligible when he's fighting, I've heard it before so I knew there was trouble.

"When I got there, they were attacking each other furiously—."

"Who?" Carlisle said.

"Demetri and Jacob," she said. "Jake was injured." Her eyes cast to the floor. "I tried to defend him but Demetri was so quick, so agile, he was... ripping Jake apart." I winced. "Then he threw Jacob over the cliff edge. Demetri was ready to follow him down there and finish him off but I managed to push him back, no more than holding him off for the few minutes before the others could reach me. I fear if the others hadn't turned up when they did, we would both be dead." Her eyes started to well up.

"Go on…" Carlisle said, in a soft voice.

"Seth arrived first, that's when Demetri started to run. Then Sam, Jared, Uley… the whole pack chased after him into the trees."

Sam stepped forward. "We ran to the state line, spreading out to cover as much area as we could; but it was no use, he was gone. It's like he just disappeared."

"What about Nahuel?" Emmett said.

Sam shook his head. "We don't know anything about Nahuel."

"What about Jacob?" I said, returning my attentions to Leah and her quivering lip.

"He was hurt, badly." She looked up at me anxiously. "There was a lot of blood." Behind me, Emmett sucked his breath in. "I carried him back to La Push. When he went unconscious his body phased back to human form. That brought him round a bit but he was still too incoherent to tell me what happened in either his wolf thoughts or his human tongue, merely saying your name over and over again." She gestured to me.

I shivered at the thought. How I wished I'd listened to him then.

"By the time I'd got him to Billy's, he'd started to say the name Nahuel but I had no idea why, or that he had even been there for that matter. Then they gave him strong painkillers that knocked him out."

"Who administered them?" Carlisle asked.

"Dr Franks. He came straight away. It put Jacob into a deep sleep, which they said he needed to allow his body to heal." From my side, Carlisle nodded. "Then of course the remains were found and the police moved in."

"Did you not smell Nahuel at all?" Carlisle said.

Leah and Seth exchanged a glance. "It wasn't like any vampires," he said finally.

"Billy sent me home to rest," Leah continued. "There was nothing more I could do, and I think I was causing him some nuisance in the state I was in. By the time I came back to check on Jacob, Seth and Sam were there but Jacob was gone. His wounds couldn't have healed in that time, he must have been raw."

"They were scars," I said, remembering with horror the lines that laced his chest that I'd assumed were from Nahuel's desperate defenses.

Carlisle stood forward. "We must speak to Jacob immediately."

"Did she not tell you?" Leah said, confounded. She looked at me in slight accusation. "That's what all this is about… we don't know where he is."

"We think Demetri has… got to him," Sam added, gravely.

Carlisle and Emmett reeled and even Rosalie looked surprised.

"What about his scent?" I prompted.

"Nothing," Sam said. "It goes dead at the diner not far from your house. It was about the time of the torrential rains."

"That won't have helped," Carlisle added.

"His thoughts - can you not hear them when you phase?" Rosalie suggested.

Leah shook her head and behind her I saw Sam and Seth copy.

Maybe he was out of range, so to speak. "How far away can you communicate?" I asked.

Sam stepped forward slightly. "We've never had to test it—"

"Well, we have 'lost' Jacob once before," Leah corrected. "But it wasn't for long. It was like he left our pack but once he accepted me into his new one, I started hearing his thoughts again. I've tried to leave the pack." Her head cast to Sam behind her apologetically. "It's no use, he's just not there."

"We must split up and search through the night," Carlisle said. "Sam, where have you covered so far?"

"Everywhere to the north and south up to the state lines, and along the coast. We didn't think it was worth checking the town centers, it's the last place he'd go."

"Fine, we'll go west and through the towns," Carlisle responded. "Although the populated areas will be slower."

"We'll go farther a field," Sam said. "Up the mountains and past the borders. Leave no stone un-turned." Everyone looked armed and set to go.

"Wait," a voice called out from the distance. Everyone turned to see Esme's face from the window of the Mercedes. She parked up and jumped over to the passenger door. "Leah."

"Yeah?" She said.

Esme turned away from her and opened the passenger door of the car. Benjamin climbed out hesitantly and Leah's eyes settled on him. Behind her, the wolves backed away into the shadows of the trees.

"This is Benjamin," Esme said. "He's a relative of Alice's."

Sam raised his eyebrows, while Leah's eyes widened.

"We'll explain later but in light of Demetri's recent visit, I don't want him involved in any of this mess. Charlie said it's fine for him to stay with your mother, keep him out of sight."

Sam sniffed at the air in confusion. Seth looked perplexed at the very suggestion but Leah didn't hesitate. "Of course," she said, eyes fixed on Ben.

"It's okay Benjamin," Esme said to him, "Leah will take you to Charlie."

He walked dubiously over the boundary line with his rucksack on his back looking uncomfortable with the whole arrangement. Alice would not be happy about this. After that, everyone set off in different directions.

I stopped running when I reached the engorged driveway that led to the main house. The crumpled piece of paper that Jake had tried to write to me on was still in my pocket and I ran it between my fingers. If Jacob was referring to Demetri in his letter, then what did he need me to do?

Up ahead Carlisle and Emmett were discussing scents. It seemed that they had not been able to pick up anything from where Demetri had stood in our house only hours earlier. How was that even possible?

"You okay?" Rosalie said. She turned to wait for me on the drive. "Why did you stop?"

I paused to catch my breath. "You're just going back to the house, Rose. We need to be out looking for him."

She looked down, slightly embarrassed. "Carlie, we can't take you with us."

_What._ "Why not?"

"It's gonna get late, you'll get tired."

"But I can't stay here on my own when Jake's in trouble."

"The wolves are taking it in turns. They can't run through the days and nights either." She followed my expression carefully. "But that's not what's bothering you is it?"

I bit my lip. "I'm fine." But her stare didn't waver. "What are we looking for? I mean, what are we gonna find… his dead body?"

She shot over to my side. "Carlie, don't think like that, he'll be fine. Jacob's a fighter."

"But that doesn't explain why no one can hear him."

"Nobody actually suggested the most obvious point, maybe he just hasn't phased in a while? There are a million explanations." She pulled an arm round me drawing me in tightly. "Don't worry, we'll find him in no time. He's most probably hiding in a cave feeling sorry for himself."

That was when I heard the first big bang.

"Emmett!" Rosalie yelled, pulling away from me. "What are you doing?"

We ran a short distance down the path to where Emmett was holding onto an enormous trunk. Carlisle and Esme had stopped by the main house and were watching him too.

"It's him," Emmett shrieked, throwing the huge tree down along the side of the driveway. It lay next to another one whose mature leaves already filled the road. "Look there are symbols on both of these trees," he said, enraged. "And I'm betting that Demetri's been making them, he must have done, otherwise we'd have smelt him, or we'd have heard him, or Alice would have foreseen his visit a week ago." He looked up at Rosalie, exasperated. "It's because of these damn symbols that we were caught off guard when he turned up at the front door. It must have been them. We didn't even hear his footsteps down the path. Nothing. It's like he appeared out of thin air." He clicked his fingers together as he spoke. Then he started gnawing at the bark where the markings had been scratched into the tree.

"What are you talking about?" Rosalie said.

"These symbols are all around the school, Rose," Emmett said. "What do we know about that night at the school?" He turned to look at us. "Alice didn't foresee anything. Not even Ben saw it coming, yet Jacob is injured and Nahuel is dead, and there's no scent of Demetri at all."

"Yet we now know, categorically, that Demetri was there at the school. Why did we not know that earlier? Because these symbols somehow sheltered it, that's why."

He rose to his feet and started pacing the grounds.

"Geez. They would never have gone to the Amazon if they'd had even an inkling of suspicion that the Volturi were about to pay us a visit," Emmett continued, his concentration fixed on the trees around the house.

"And what do you know," he continued, darting backwards and forwards. "Three more symbols around our house. That makes five in total. Sensing a pattern?" He went up to another tree that bordered the decking behind the house and started pulling it down.

"Is this really necessary?" Esme said.

"Sorry, Esme," Emmett said, not looking up. "But I don't know what on earth these symbols mean, but if they're in any way connected to him, then I'm gonna make sure that every last one of them is turned into sawdust," he said, crumbling the bark in his palm.


	54. Chapter 54 - Benjamin

Chapter Fifty-Four: Benjamin

Two things had happened that I hadn't foreseen and both of them ended with Clearwater. That was the family I'd been posted with, since it had all gotten too dangerous at the Cullen's. The first was Sue Clearwater who wasn't exactly keen on taking me under her wing. I was beginning to wish I was back at the motel minding my own business. I was freaked out enough by all the upheaval and then I was practically thrown at three Native Americans who took me back to their tribal village with seething anger like they were about to sacrifice me. Why did Alice have to run off to the Amazon?

The second thing that I didn't see coming was Leah Clearwater. Tall, dark, silky black hair, and a general look of Pocahontas. Not only was she beautiful, but so far she was the only one to express any hospitality. Despite being pretty shaken up by something, she allowed the time to ask after me, and to ensure that before she left me with her mother, I was fully set up in her brother's bedroom. Even so, the situation was far from ideal.

I'd seen it on the map as I'd driven up to Forks. La Push was a costal village and not entirely as I'd imagined. It was dense with homes and fishing boats, which looked a little prehistoric. Leah's mother Sue had given me the dirtiest look ever, sniffed at me like I was a disease, then shown me to a cluttered little room with fat blue striped curtains and a sheet so thin I thought I would freeze.

"You can stay in here," Sue said, without offering me a beverage. How I wished Leah could have stayed in the house a little longer.

By morning the sun had come out and it seemed to thaw Sue slightly who even invited me to have breakfast with her. She cut into a grapefruit and sliced it into eight segments while I ate three slices of buttered toast. There was no conversation at all. She looked like she was battling with some inner demons as every now and then I caught her eyes well up, but she just shook her head and carried on like nothing had happened and pretended not to notice my unsubtle stares.

"Anyone home?" I heard from the front as the door clinked open. Sue jumped up like she'd just seen a ghost and a policeman walked in; a sheriff by the badges on his uniform.

I stood to attention with a momentary wave of panic that he was coming to arrest me. The outfit made me nervous. Had my parents sent for him to bring me home? It was a mistake telling them where I was.

"Hi son," he said, and this time there was a broad smile that stretched beneath a full moustache. He put his hand on my shoulder and for the first time in a while it felt normal. Not too hot, not too cold, not hard, just normal.

I nodded at him, swallowing the remnants of toast that were threatening to lodge themselves in my throat. "You must be feeling like you don't know if you're coming or going?" He said. "I'm Charlie, Bella's father. You met Bella right?"

I nodded, trying not to cough; toast still stuck in my windpipe. This guy didn't look like a vampire at all. I studied him as he started fumbling with a pager on his belt. On his lapel a small badge read Chief Swan.

"I'll get you some juice," Sue said, turning to the window as she spoke.

"Will you let me help?" He said, looking up at her.

I couldn't see her face but her hair was swishing from side to side. She was pouring orange juice from the carton into a small glass.

"They will be able to cover more ground without a search party getting in their way," she said without looking up.

He approached her and put his arms around her shoulders. "It'll be okay, Sue, he'll turn up. Jacob is full of surprises."

"It's surprises that worry me," she said. For a moment it felt like they'd forgotten I was even there.

What I couldn't work out was where Jacob fitted into the picture. I assumed it was the same Jacob that Alice had mentioned weeks ago. She'd asked if I could see Carlie's best friend, Jacob, in my visions, which I could not, and she'd also said he was part of this tribe called the Quileutes, and here I was. Then Carlie had said he could turn into a wolf. Disturbing. But his surname wasn't Clearwater, and so I struggled to comprehend the connection. Were the whole tribe this close?

Charlie and Sue conversed for a bit before I excused myself. I was going to keep out of the way but the television was on in the front room. Oprah was interviewing some semi-famous actor about the role that had made him famous. Not entirely riveting but daytime tv sure beat my own company in the bedroom, so I took a seat.

I didn't even realize I was asleep until I heard the rasp at the front door. I had been thinking about an old premonition of Carlie swimming in the marina before I nodded off. In my dream it was a sunny day much like today, which round here seemed to be a rarity. In it Carlie had followed Esme, Emmett, Carlisle and Rosalie up river where her trouser leg had been caught on a fishing line. All I deduced from the whole frantic vision was that she couldn't hold her breath underwater indefinitely whereas the others could.

Given what I was thinking of, I was surprised to see Carlie in Sue's front room, fully clothed and dripping with water.

"Look at you," Sue was saying. "Let me get you some of Leah's clothes."

I looked around for Charlie but he must have left already. Carlie didn't move from the spot she was on. She looked kind of awkward.

I scrambled to my feet.

"Are you okay? What happened?" I said.

"Nothing," She pushed the damp curls from her face. "We can't find him."

"Jacob?"

She looked faintly surprised. "Did they tell you?"

"No, well not much, but I heard his name once or twice, I get the gist of it, you're all looking for him." I watched her nod. "Carlie, to be honest I feel a bit like a spare part here on my own. I can't help, no one is explaining anything to me, and I'm just getting in the way. Are you sure I shouldn't just wait for Alice back in the motel?"

"She wouldn't want that," she said. "She'd want you to be safe, and here you are safe."

I shrugged, not feeling any less relaxed. Sue came back with a couple of white towels and handed them to Carlie.

"I'm just going to iron these clothes for you," Sue added, disappearing into the kitchen. Carlie took the smaller of the two towels and started to run it through her hair.

"So why were you in the marina anyway?" I said. "Shouldn't you be down at the station filing a missing persons report." I thought of Chief Swan. I couldn't understand why Sue had declined his help. Why were they all being so secretive?

Carlie stopped patting her hair with the towel. "You saw me in the marina?"

"Yeah, and the river too, then you left the others and took Carlisle's car." I peered over the top of the net blinds to catch a glimpse of the black Merc in the driveway. "I couldn't work out why though. Were you looking for him in the river?"

Her face looked still, almost serene were it not for the fact that she seemed to be holding her breath.

"Carlie?"

She exhaled. "Okay, what I tell you now must never be repeated to anyone outside our... kind. And their kind," she added, referring in some way to Sue who had still not returned. I could hear some clunking out back and the faint puff of steam from the iron.

"Something happened," she said. "Something really big. Jacob's gone. He could be hurt or he could be—." She hung her head. "You remember last week when you came to find me in the clearing?" I nodded. "Well, I was upset about something." Clearly. That, she didn't need to explain. "I got the wrong end of the stick, we all did." She bit her lip and went quiet.

"Try me. I might understand?" Given everything else that had happened since my arrival in Forks, I was sure nothing else could surprise me.

"I thought Jacob had done something bad," her voice dropped to a whisper.

"How bad?" I said, injecting some humor into my voice.

She took a deep breath. "I thought he killed my friend, Nahuel."

She watched me carefully for a reaction, like she was waiting for the moment the color would drain from my face and I'd call 911. Not that calling Sheriff Swan would help. He seemed to be in on it too.

"The Brazilian guy?" I said.

She looked up at me astonished. "How do you know who he is?"

I tried to hide a smug grin. "How else did you think Esme knew to get some fresh clothes ready for his arrival?"

This Jacob character must be some strong wolf if he could have killed Nahuel.

Sue returned with a pressed bundle of clothes. "Well?" She said.

"I don't think he's at the harbor," Carlie said.

Sue pushed the clothes into Carlie's hands. "Oh, thank goodness for that. You know, when Rosalie said the port, well… I thought the worst." She looked at me; a short concerned glance.

"It's okay, he knows," Carlie said.

Sue's shoulders softened. "Oh," she said, her eyes cast to the carpet and then back to Carlie.

"Have you heard from Leah and the guys? Maybe they've found a trace of him, or something?" Carlie said.

"No," Sue replied, quickly. She chewed her words before speaking much quieter in a deflated voice. "There's no hope is there?"

Carlie looked choked at the very thought.

"What does this guy look like?" I said. They both peered up at me.

"Might you have seen him in a vision?" Carlie said.

I already knew that I couldn't see him. Alice had tried to focus me on Carlie's friends, but how could I tell her that? Every muscle in Carlie's face wound tight and she leapt over to my side in a manoeuvre that I wouldn't have thought possible in such a small space.

"Do you really think you could see him?" She said.

"I don't know. I don't think I've ever seen him before, but Alice has been teaching me to focus myself and try to draw a vision out. Perhaps I could try it?"

Sue looked at me dubiously. "You can see the future?" She said.

I stepped back slightly. "Yes, but I'm a bit of a novice. I tend to have a short lead-in time with my visions. I can't promise anything ma'am but I can try? Do you have any photos or drawings of Jacob?"

Sue was already on her feet, pacing over to the cabinet. She opened the bottom two doors and pulled out a bag of tea lights and a tablecloth.

"I'm sure they're in here somewhere," she said, reaching to the back of the cupboard. She took out a carved wooden box and sprung open the lid. It was full of photographs. Carlie dropped to the floor to search through them with her. There were hundreds of Seth, Leah and Sam; the three people who had brought me here last night. I guessed from the photos that I was staying in Seth's room, and Leah's was next to his down the hall. So who was Sam?

I studied a photo of him with his arms round Leah's waist. She was smiling up at him.

"Is she with this guy?" I asked.

Sue sighed and took the photo from my hand.

"Not anymore, that was a long, long time ago."

Leah didn't look any different from then to now, apart from her smile, which lit up the photo. I would have liked to have seen her smile like that last night. Instead she went to her room and was gone before dawn.

"Here's one," Sue said, pushing it towards me. There was a small guy in the centre with long straight black hair parted in the centre. He was sitting on the beach with his arms round two younger looking girls. They couldn't have been older than about ten.

"Rachel," Carlie said, pointing to the fairer of the two.

"Who's the other one?" I said.

"That must be Rebecca," Carlie added sourly, looking up at Sue for conformation.

"They're Jacob's sisters," Sue said. "Twins."

"He's too young, Sue, we need older, something more recognizable," Carlie said, looking through more photos. She scrambled through a whole pile like they were being shuffled by a card dealer. Every so often she tensed and slowed on a picture of Jacob, and then continued with her search.

Sue seemed put off by Carlie's speed. "Anything useful?" She said. She picked another photo off the floor. This one was of Leah, Seth, and Jacob. Again they were young teenagers at best.

"You must have taken something over the last ten years?" Carlie said.

"We used to take loads of photos, well Harry did, then all you youngsters got mobile phones and digital cameras. I can't remember the last time the kids printed one out."

"Billy might have some back at home, Sue?" Carlie said.

She picked up the phone and punched in a series of numbers.

"Billy, it's Sue," she said down the receiver.

There was a pause.

"When was that?"

Her face remained still.

"No I've not heard anything since then either but we might be able to track him another way. Have you got any recent pictures of Jacob? We just need something of him grown up."

Again she paused as Billy spoke.

"Yeah anything like that will do," she said. "We'll come over now."

While she spoke, Carlie slipped into the bathroom to change. She came out wearing indigo blue boyfriend-style jeans, a black tee, and a pair of ridiculously oversized sneakers that made her walk funny. Carlie frowned at the window.

"Have you got anything a little more covered up?" She asked Sue.

For once it was actually quite warm outside. I was planning on sticking with my short-sleeved top for the walk, but Sue came out with an enormous Gap jumper with it's letters pasted across the front. Carlie put it on and pulled the cord around the neck until the hood covered her head and practically all of her face.

"I'll see you there," Carlie said, running to the car.

For this reason alone, I was surprised that the Black's house was only one street away. We'd passed maybe fifteen houses max on our walk over. Carlie was waiting for us in the car. I couldn't see her expression through the blacked out windows but when we approached she jumped out of the car and sprinted through the front door.

An older guy in a wheelchair barely had time to greet her as she passed. His face was aged and worn, and he watched us at the doorway with a reverent expression. Sue pushed the small of my back and indicated for me to go through. A lady, mid thirties maybe, exited as we arrived, ushering two small girls out the house. Her face was cold and hard and I didn't miss the glare she gave Carlie.

Sue took the handles of Billy's wheelchair and pushed him back inside where a load of photos had already been piled up on the table.

"This is Ben," Sue announced, without so much as an explanation. The old man in the wheelchair studied me.

"So you think you can help kid?" He said, his voice gruff.

I nodded, not quite as confident as I had been back at Sue's. "Well, sometimes I can see things… you know. It's not guaranteed sir but I have seen a great many things that don't necessarily make sense. If I could recognize him, maybe it would remind me of something I've seen?"

"Well, it's worth a try," the old man said. He attempted a grin through almost lifeless eyes. "By the way, I'm Billy. Jacob's father."

A wooden chair had been pulled out from under the table and I settled down onto it to look through the pictures. Carlie didn't take the lead this time. In fact she didn't say one word.

Jacob was certainly older in these photos. His hair had been cut short and was spiked with hair gel in some pictures. I considered myself quite good with faces. Once I'd seen one, be it in real life or in a vision, I never forgot it. This face I definitely had not seen. But I knew that.

Beside me Billy sighed. "It was too good to be true kid. Thanks anyway," he said, although I'd neither finished looking through the photos nor said anything negative. It was obvious though. If I'd not recognized him in the first few photos then I wasn't going to.

I continued sifting through the remaining ones feeling the desperation in the room. When I finished I looked up in regret.

"I'm sorry sir. It was a long shot. I don't recognize him or the others."

"And why would you?" He patted Ben on the back and forced a smile. Then he reversed the wheelchair back to the wall allowing a pathway to the front door.

"Could there be any other photos?" Carlie asked. "Billy, Jake must have some more—."

"It's no use, Carlie," I said. "If I don't recognize him from these, then either I haven't seen him before—."

"But you see me and I've been with him a thousa—."

"Or he's blocked like you are to Alice?" I said. "I don't know why some people are blocked, but round here they seem to be."

Beside me Billy snorted.

"I think it's nature's way of protecting them," Sue said softly to Billy. "Imagine if Ben had seen them all this time." She raised her eyebrows to him and they shared a curious glance.

"What about Prom night?" Carlie said to Billy. "Did you not take any photos of Jacob and his.. date?"

Billy frowned. "It's not his first prom."

I bowed my head and started walking back towards the front door. "Sorry to have troubled you—."

Carlie ignored me. "Maybe I've got something. Ben. I have my phone," she said, pulling a small clear bag from her back pocket. It had a royal blue plastic fastening across the whole top, and she twisted the dials to release the catch. "I have some photos from prom, maybe they'll jog your memory."

I couldn't see him. It was naive to think that by trying harder I would be able to help.

"What about Nahuel?" She was saying.

"Carlie, let's just go?" I said.

"Maybe a vision of Nahuel would lead you to Jacob. After all they were together before he went missing."

She thrust her phone in my face with a picture of her and Nahuel on the night of prom. His hair was slicked back like a 1950's singer. Carlie looked exquisite, like one of those expensive china dolls.

"But I told you, I could see Nahuel." 'Could' being the operative word. "It doesn't help."

"I just thought he might look different in proper clothes," she said. She looked so desperate that I took her phone and started to skim through the photos if nothing other than to show willing. It looked brand new with the plastic still on the rear cover. There were only six photos on it. Nahuel and Carlie, two other kids in black tie, and then one of Jacob with another girl that caught my eye.

"Who's that?" I said, looking up.

"Oh, that's my school friend, Jaynie. She was Jacob's prom date," Carlie said, sourly. I tried not to notice Billy raise his eyebrows slightly.

"Why," she said, narrowing her eyes. "Do you recognize her?"

I did actually, but it wasn't even worth admitting. This girl had been in my visions, but nothing of interest had ever happened with her, nor had she come into contact with Jacob. For that reason alone I told Carlie it was nothing. "Sorry to have got your hopes up though," I said. "She's pretty that's all."

She dropped her head again and frowned.

This time we called it quits and headed back to Sue's. Billy didn't seem quite as upset as I thought, given it was his son who was missing, but, if you don't have any faith in the first place, then you can't get disappointed when it fails. Sue and Carlie on the other hand were back to square one, solemn and desolate. They rode back in the Merc together, and I took a walk.

The roads in La Push weren't grid-like, which is why I didn't find my way back straight away, but it wasn't a bad thing. I had let them down. Just another to add to my list of failures, but what did it matter, in just over eight weeks, I would be history too. Maybe I'd meet Jacob on the other side, if he was already there. I'd tell him that I tried to help, and he'd thank me for my efforts.

For the first time in nearly a month, I didn't have a chill running through me from the weather. I did however feel more homesick than ever. Alice could be gone weeks and I missed my parents however obstinate they could be.

I walked over to a bench that faced out onto a construction site. It looked like a school was being built by the picture on the sign, which showed a three storey building, curving into a point like a ship at the front. Very feng shui.

There wasn't much noise from the site, other than low garbled conversation from the builders eating sandwiches on the far sidewalk. I reached for my phone in my pocket, but when I pulled it out, the small bag of herbs tumbled out onto the floor. I picked it up and inspected it. It looked like a herbal tea bag, strawberry pink in color, with a strange pull cord at the top sealing the herbs inside. I sniffed at it. The flavor was mild.

"You'll be wanting some water with that," a voice carried from over the road. When I looked up one of the builders was holding a flask up at me. I stole a look behind me. There was no one else around. When I looked back the guy had crossed the road. He was still wearing his hard yellow hat with Endermons written across the front.

"Strong stuff that is," he said pointing to my herbs. I'd been given them by a weird Native American lady at the mall and quite remarkably they were still in my pocket, probably because I hadn't been home for long enough for my mother to do my laundry. 'This will help you see,' the old lady had said to me that day.

"Only need a drop," the Endermons guy added.

He poured the water from his flask into a polystyrene cup and put it in my hands.

"Thank you," I said to him.

He didn't reply, but spun back round to the other men. "Come on boys, time's up," he said and clapped his hands.

I waited until they'd all disappeared from sight back to the building work before dropping a small fleck from the tea bag into the water. It wasn't really that warm, but the herbal stuff seemed to dissolve all the same. Then I took a sip.


	55. Chapter 55 - Carlie

Chapter Fifty-Five: Carlie

"Carlisle, call me back," I screeched into the phone. "I'm on my way to the house. I know where he is." I punched the END key and raced to the door. "Thank you Ben. You really are a lifesaver," I said, leaving him speechless in Sue's house.

Outside, the sun streamed down and I pulled the jumper hood back up over my head covering as much of my face as I ran from the house. When I reached Carlisle's car, I sped home full throttle.

I swept into the hallway. Empty. Where were they? I could hardly stand still. I jumped up the stairs to Alice's room and changed my clothes. She was the same shoe size and I kicked off Leah's oversized sneakers and pulled on a pair of Alice's boots. It was then I heard the others downstairs.

"It's Ben," I said, rushing to the door as Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie and Emmett walked in. "He recognized Jaynie from one of the photos. He saw a vision of her a week ago, but he discarded it because Jacob wasn't with her. Then he drank some weird Quileute tea and he saw Jacob. He saw Jaynie smuggling Jacob into her house. He's alive. He's hiding at her place, and he has been all this time." I panted, looking at them expectantly.

"Wow," Esme said.

"What if he's left though?" It was Rosalie. "Could he accurately date this vision?"

I walked towards them at the door. "I don't know. I don't think so, but we have to go now, we have to find out."

Carlisle hesitated, looking back outside. "It's too light Carlie, the sun is still out, we daren't go yet."

"But we can't wait a second longer," I said. "Like Rose said, he might leave!"

Carlisle and Esme exchanged an uncertain glance. "There's not much more of the day left. It won't be long to wait," she said.

"Please let me go... I promise, I'll just wait outside in the car until dusk. That way I'll make sure he doesn't go anywhere…"

It was one of those moments when no one agreed with me, but I was so pent up with adrenalin, I was already wondering how I would get past them to go. Emmett, Esme and Rosalie were still, but beside them Carlisle watched me practically jump up and down on the spot.

"Okay," he said, and I could tell from the look on his face that he wasn't prepared to have the argument. He raised his eyebrows and looked at me with the most serious expression I'd ever seen. "But you know how important it is, don't leave the car in broad daylight. Don't even open the window until dusk."

I nodded as solemnly as possible and fled to the garage without so much as a second glance at them.

The last throes of sunlight cast an ochre hue across the skies. It might have been beautiful under different circumstances but now the setting sun just seemed stuck on the crest of the far hills. I parked outside the neighboring house in the shadow of a big tree, which left a shaded corridor up to Jaynie's family driveway. Beyond that, only a few mature trees threw long shadows across the front lawn of the detached brick house. I'd thought about it at least a thousand times. It would take no more than seconds to leap frog through the shadows to the front door. I doubt anyone would see me but it was hardly worth the risk. I'd given Carlisle my word. Besides, I'd waited this long and no one had left the house; a few more minutes wouldn't make a difference now. Either he'd be in there or he wouldn't, but a fresh hope rekindled that Jacob was alive.

I jumped out as the last dregs of color drained from the skies.

There were no cars on the drive. That could only have been a good thing; I could do without her parents being home, given how I had ruined their daughter's prom? To make matters worse, I hadn't even tried to make contact with Jaynie since that night - since the kiss - although enough had happened to take my mind of it.

I knocked heavily on the front door feeling it vibrate slightly beneath my knuckles before I banged again. Silence. I left it only a second or two before knocking again, but already my fist was poised to knock the door down. It wouldn't take much. A lightweight timber door - perhaps there would be a double bolt but a sharp thump would crease it like paper, if I really wanted to. I knocked one last time with enough force to leave a slight dent. This time I heard the whispers from upstairs.

"Alright, I'm coming, I'm coming," a female voice rung out. Soft, light footsteps descended the stairs and the hall light came on. I pulled my hand back thrusting it into my pocket where it could do no harm. The chain rattled and the latch clunked before the door started to open.

"Carlie. I didn't expect to see you here," Jaynie said coldly, as her face came partly into view. It wasn't a clear look of surprise but she was flushed nonetheless and it brought a slight tingle to the back of my throat.

"I'm sorry to turn up unannounced," I said, trying to keep my voice slow and calm. "I'm sure I'm the last person you want to see right now but I need to see Jacob." I held her gaze but she didn't flinch, not even at the mention of his name.

"Jake's not here," she said, flatly. Good liar. If she was angry with me she didn't show it now, she was simply dismissive, and that was frustrating. She held the door in her hand with no more than eight inches gap. It was enough to see her face in full, and it was certainly enough to smell him, fresh and strong.

"I know he's here Jaynie, and I don't want to play games. I need to see him now." It took all my strength to keep the growl back from within my teeth. I was so desperate I could have just flicked her out of the way like swatting a fly. Why couldn't she just play along?

"I can't help," she said, looking down at her watch. This time a trickle of hesitation and a faltering hand got the better of her. "I have to get going now anyway, I'm meeting someone."

"I just need to speak to him." I raised my voice hoping he'd hear me. "J - I should have listened to you."

"Yeah, you should have done," she snapped, stepping forward slightly beneath the doorframe. Her eyes flashed to the side and then back to me.

"So he is here?"

"No, but I've seen him—."

"When Jaynie? It's very important. It's a matter of life and death."

She didn't appear to take my words literally.

"You had your chance Carlie," she said. "You can't keep screwing with him you know."

"You don't know anything."

"I know what Jake told me, and all I can say is you missed your opportunity." She ushered me away with her hand, "now if you don't mind," she added, before starting to close the door in my face. I'm not sure whether it was the words or the patronizing way in which she delivered them that made me snap. I slammed my hand into the closing door. It bounced on impact, swinging back violently into the wall. Jaynie fell backwards as the door splintered.

"And did he tell you that, too?" I said, looking down at her through seething teeth. Don't growl, don't growl. I held my face still for as long as I could. She didn't get up, looking away from me in silent beckoning into the darkness.

"Enough, Carlie," a croaky voice shot out. "I'm here."

I followed her eyes up the stairs to the sound of Jacob's voice. He stood on the landing wearing unfamiliar clothes. His hair was unkempt and there were dark circles beneath his eyes. "Close the door... now," he said, his expression austere.

I turned to see Jaynie climb to her feet, reaching a shaky hand out to the door. A crack ran almost the full length of it, with one half dangling precariously.

"You told her everything?" I said, searching his face, hoping it wasn't true.

He started to walk down the stairs. It was not one sinuous bound like I would have expected but a slow, undignified walk, like the fate of the world rested upon his shoulders.

"You're okay," I said, relieved.

"We need to talk," he replied, frowning, ushering me down the corridor towards the kitchen.

It was a step down from the rest of the house. Small, square windows cast shadows from the sliver of the moon. Jaynie faltered behind with uneven breath and a racing heartbeat. As she drew her hand to the light switch, Jacob turned.

"Do you mind if we leave them off for now," he said and she dropped her hand automatically, staring at him with dumbfounded reverence. In the pale moonlight the contorted anguish spread across his face.

"Jake, thank god you're alive. I'm sorry I didn't listen," I started. "I should have listened, I know that now—"

"Stop, Carlie," he said, raising his hand up at me. He lowered down to a wooden chair that put his face in shadow.

"But the Volturi..." I stole a quick glance at Jaynie, who didn't seem to respond at the mention of their name. "What's happening Jacob?"

He looked up at Jaynie who stayed vehemently still by the fridge. "Can we have a minute please?" he said.

"I have to go anyway," she mumbled, casting her eyes to the floor. "My dad will be home by eleven so don't be here then." She turned to leave. I'd never seen 'submissive Jaynie', so different from the outspoken friend I had made on my first day at school.

We waited in silence until the front door clinked shut. I was surprised it closed at all in its state. Then I turned back at Jacob, feeling lost.

"What did you tell her, Jake?" I said, bracing myself for the very worst.

His voice was barely more than a whisper.

"Nothing. A family arrangement." He paused, scanning my face. "It seemed the only human way I could describe it."

"Betrothed?" At least he didn't tell her what I really was. "Thank you," I added, taking a chair from beneath the wooden table. This time it was I who hung my head. "If only I'd let you explain, I never realized…" my voice petered off, searching for the words I'd practiced in the car, "but you have to understand, I never knew about Demetri until he paid us a visit last night. I saw you… and jumped to conclusions, we all did."

He lifted his eyes from the table. "I've never seen your family quite so... mad," he said.

"So you couldn't just pick up the phone, J, or at least send word to Leah and the others. Do you know they have been going out of their mind with worry—."

"Don't you understand, I couldn't. He would have found me. I had such a small window of opportunity while the others were still pursing him, but after that I couldn't risk it" His eyes started to water. "You shouldn't have come. You shouldn't have sought me out."

"But why, Jake?"

"If he knows we've so much as spoken, or saw you here tonight, it could put you in danger too, it would put all of you in danger." He picked up my hands in his, holding them tightly in a ball. "I just couldn't let that happen."

The electricity between us sparked instantly, and automatically I felt safe in his warmth. I realized it was that feeling of irrevocable protection that had been missing since I had left Forks.

I looked into his eyes, red rimmed and swollen.

"J, how did you, Demetri and Nahuel come to be in the woods together in the middle of the night?"

He sighed. "I wanted to tell you this."

"So tell me now."

When he didn't start speaking I clenched his hands tighter, drawing them to me. "It's okay, I'm listening," I said.

"It happened after I'd taken Jaynie home," he started. "Something I'd felt when I left prom the first time didn't feel quite right. It's hard to explain really. I feel foolish even mentioning it, but there was something up with the air around the gym. I was coming back from her place, over to yours which took me up by the school and then I remembered that feeling and thought I'd stop quickly while it was dark, and take a look around."

"What was it?"

"I don't know. It was like a pocket of empty air, not really a scent at all, but I am so used to smelling everything from the hazy mist in the evenings to dandelions in the spring that it just struck me as odd."

I frowned at him. Demetri's new trick.

"But the others didn't know?"

"No." He hung his head. "Empty air is not really worth reporting back to the pack.

I took a quick look around the forest," he continued, "that's when I saw them. Demetri was zipping around Nahuel like a firefly or something."

"What was he saying?"

"I don't know exactly what it was about but Demetri was laying into Nahuel about some big war, telling him he had to choose a side to fight on, and that he didn't stand a chance on his own."

"A war - with who?" I said.

He looked down at my hands, still in his, and traced lines across my palm with his finger. "That's what I couldn't work out."

"Could it be with the Shaman coven in the Amazon?"

"No, I don't think so, he didn't bring them up."

"But did he mention Zafrina?"

"Yes, well actually no, it was Nahuel who brought her name up, saying that she was all they ever wanted from him. He shouted at Demetri that it was never about protecting him, it was always about Zafrina — is she the one who does the hallucinations?"

"Yes, the Volturi are petrified of her. They keep trying to get her to come on board but she won't…"

"Well, Demetri started pushing Nahuel around, trying to bully him into telling them where their coven was or something. Before I knew it, they were having a full blown fight."

"Is that when you intervened?" I asked.

Jacob hung his head, shaking it slightly.

"Not at first. I wanted to understand what Demetri was talking about. Carlie, I wouldn't have consciously let anything happen to Nahuel but if there was going to be a war, I needed to know about it. I needed to protect my family and if there was a chance that you were in danger I had to find out. I didn't realize just how strong Demetri was. All he seemed to care about was Zafrina."

"So Nahuel was right to be so precious about her. But he didn't tell him, right?"

"No, he never told Demetri, not even at the very end. He took a punch to the chest and was gripping it fiercely. He bled you know. I didn't know half-bloods could even do that…"

I winced at the thought. My eyes started to sting and well up; so ashamed for the vulnerability I had drawn Nahuel to.

"So Demetri was advancing towards him. That's when Nahuel said, 'You'll never find them, Demetri, we have a secret weapon,' and that's when I leapt in." He looked up at me apologetically. "Carlie, I knew how it was between you two, but I also knew how things stood between us, so there was no reason to want him hurt. I would never have done that to you, despite the... you know, the punch. But when I leapt in, it's like he caught me off guard. I thought I could take him, he was too strong."

"More so than any other vampire you've fought?"

"Yeah, he was different league altogether, quicker than I've ever seen, and I couldn't sense him coming for some reason." Jake pulled a face.

"I think I know how," I said. "But first I want to know how he died."

Jake dropped his head again. "He caught me unaware," he said, shaking his head from side to side. "He flung me right into a tree and before I'd even got to my feet he'd delivered the final blow to Nahuel. I can still see it playing over in my head. Believe me, it torments me, because I let him down, because I let you down. It hurts me because he was your friend. But believe me, I did everything I could to save him."

Jacob's face crumpled into his hands, and I found myself moving from my seat to hug him, tears flowing down both our cheeks.

"I should've phased earlier, I know that now, but if he really meant war, I had to know. I had to protect the pack. I had to protect you," he said, into my shoulder. I saw the edges of deep lines running across his arms. I pulled away lifting the front of his top up to reveal the scars that crisscrossed his torso. They had healed as well as they would do, leaving seething blemishes across his chest. I ran my fingers along one; ice cold to the touch, an eternal reminder of how close he had really come.

"You're lucky not to have been bitten," I said. "But why couldn't you tell me Jacob? Why couldn't you at least tell the others? You don't need to hide here."

"It's the last place he'd ever look for me," he said. "In the moments before the pack arrived, he had me. I saw the final flashes of my life right before my eyes. Then he heard the others coming. He threatened my whole family... and you."

"That's why you didn't speak to the rest of the pack?" I said.

He looked up at me. "Yes. I wanted him to think I was dead, then maybe he wouldn't bother coming after everyone else, and I half hoped that by staying away, he would never be able to connect any of the others to me. The less they knew the better, and that way they would be safe. You see whatever beef he had was between him and Nahuel. It wasn't our fight. By me getting caught up in the middle of it, I had brought a monumental threat upon myself. But I couldn't let that malice affect you or the Quileute's."

"But Leah knew Demetri was there? The others that came to your rescue must have known too."

"Demetri only saw Leah, and only in her wolf form. He wouldn't have guessed that she was a girl."

He stood up and walked over to a cupboard on the far side of the room. There were three bottles of water lined up and he grabbed one and took a swig.

"My memory gets a bit hazy after that. I don't recall them at all but I heard their voices in my sleep, I knew Demetri had got away…" He shook his head and wandered back to the table. "The next thing I remember is waking up at home. I had to distance myself from the others. You see, he knows who I am, he knows my human form, he has a vendetta against me. But as for the pack, I'm not sure he would be able to identify them when they're not wolves. They could be safe as long as he never saw them with me. I couldn't put any of them in danger.

"I thought I might have one chance to explain everything to you while the wolves were still chasing after him, so Bella could put her shield up, but she wasn't there and you wouldn't listen, and it got too late. I had nowhere else to turn."

He paused looking deep into my eyes.

"Carlie, I meant what I said that night in the school gym. I would never, ever put you in danger… I love you. I can't believe you doubted me."

"I had no choice." I squirmed in my seat. "So Demetri didn't come for you in the diner?"

Now it was his turn to look surprised.

"How do you know I was in a diner?"

I pulled the scrunched up piece of paper from my pocket and tried to flatten it out on the table in front of him. He lowered back down to the chair to read the message.

"I thought I would never see you again," I said quietly, feeling the tears well up again in my eyes. "Until then I never thought… well I never even knew—."

"You should know I would never make a decision that would harm you." His red-rimmed eyes went wide as he spoke. "I love you, and I always will, so just stop being stupid and give me some credit for trying to protect you, cos that's what I'm here for and that's what I'll always do."

It made me sink back into his chest with low sobs that I tried hard to conceal. He pulled his arm around me and kissed my head.

"I'm sorry," I whispered into his neck.

"I'm sorry too."

He kissed me slowly then brought his forehead to mine so they were pressing against each other, locked in thought, my tears now on his face. I sent a vision of everlasting love through my fingertips, and this time he neither resisted nor manipulated it.

He pulled away, sniffing at first and then squinting out through a small window into the rear yard. Venetian blinds marred the moonlight, and he quickly shot over to them, drawing them up out of the way.

"What is it, J?"

He was still. "That son of a—." He moved to a small doorway to the left of the window and rattled the handle. It didn't budge, but then I saw something outside move. Jacob didn't waste a moment longer on the door, but yanked his t-shirt up over his head. Then he moved backwards.

"J, what are you doing?" I said, as his T-shirt landed on me.

"It's him Car," he said, turning. "Stay here," he added in a serious tone, before launching towards the small window to the right of the door. Ordinarily I would have said it was a push for anyone to fit through it, but now mid-phase it seemed an even greater feat.

"Jake, no," I shrieked, watching his body morph and grow. Before he'd even reached the window his back started to arch and fur sprouted through. Then his head shook and started to change. His canine nose touched the window first, shattering it. His fur brushed against on every side of the opening and the wood splintered as he started to pull the frame out with him, but it didn't slow him down. Moments later he landed on the lawn on all fours, shaking the remnants of the window frame as he bounded towards the trees at the back of the house.

Stay here? In Jaynie's house, with a cracked front door and a busted rear window? Not likely. I threw his T-shirt to the floor and started looking around the room. Keys keys. I pulled at the top drawer, which was full of crockery, then at the second. There was a fat bunch of keys partially hidden by a set of kitchen knives. I grabbed them and let myself out.

What was he thinking? It was way too built up in this suburb for a wolf.

I could hear him, and smell him, but I couldn't see him. There were great paw prints in the soil by an old oak tree. I smudged them out with my foot and when I looked up I saw two and a half horizontal lines etched into the bark.

Demetri.

Is this who Jake had seen? The lines were raw, and the third bar not yet complete. Is this what Demetri did before he attacked? To become scentless? I started to walk into a thicket of trees. I heard nothing, and quickly stepped my pace up, running across a wooden fence, which divided the gardens.

That's when I felt him. He came from my side and swept me off my feet. I heard the breathing, and then felt the fur. Once he'd pushed me into the air, he somehow managed to swing me round onto his back. I ducked my head and clung on tight as he started racing across the gardens with me. He hurdled the stone wall at the corner of Tibb Street like it was a picket fence and then we were on the road.

"Jake what are you doing?" I said. Car headlights came into view up ahead.

With me on his back, Jake took us off-road, down over a small embankment to a stream that ran down below road level. Here there was a small footpath that hugged the water, which continued on beneath a small bridge ahead. He ran through it at first, drenching us, then out the other side, so we ran against the current, taking us up hill.

"J, was that Demetri?" I said. I wasn't sure if he nodded or not as we bounded along. We ran like this for twenty minutes or so, before veering off the footpath towards the Issaquah mountains. Around us were long stretches of open grassland, lazy and untouched. I loosened my grip from his fur, and he slowed for long enough for me to jump off, then together we carried on running side by side towards the forest.

"Where are we going?" I said, once we'd reached the trees. He stopped for long enough to jerk his head to the side.

"I get it, we're running away, but why Jake? What just happened?"

He blinked several times and then raised his paw. I looked at it in confusion and then slowly I raised my hand to meet his. There was a spark to the touch, then nothing.

"Are you trying to send me a vision?"

I don't know what made him think it would work? Apart from that time in his truck when he somehow manipulated my thoughts, he'd never so much as interfered with mine. He growled slightly, then closed his eyes again. I closed mine too, but it was still black.

Jake didn't have a gift. Even so, I tried to see if I could pull at the vision as I had done with Cruz when I'd wanted to see what had happened in the shabono. I imagined Jake running into the National Park as we had just done. It sprung up into a vision. This time, instead of stopping to speak with me, I imagined him bounding further into the trees.

"Where are we going Jake?" I said, watching him run in my vision. This time I did see something. It was dark and blurry but it looked like some kind of hut. Then it went dark.

When I opened my eyes he was watching me.

"A hut?" I said. "That's where we're going?"

He nodded, blinking a few times, then turned and took off into the trees. I ran after him.

The part of the least importance was the thing that was niggling at me the most. Jake had seen something going on between Nahuel and Demetri in the woods behind the school. I believed him, not because the story completely made sense, which it did, but because of the sheer integrity that was wound so tightly across his face, but it was so unlike Jake. More so, if the whole cocktail of stories were true, then why were his jeans and T-shirt also found in the woods behind the school? Carlisle had clearly tipped those onto the dining table along with his tattered suit trousers. Did he change at Jaynie's, which meant something had happened between the two of them? You don't just swap your trousers for the hell of it.

Jake took me out across open parkland again and then back into the trees. Up ahead there was movement, and a strong smell of humans. We slowed at the edge of the trees when we saw what was up ahead. I'd seen something like this before when I'd been out hunting, but we'd stayed well away at the time, for obvious reasons. Now, I took it all in. At the front there was a big wheel, bright red, with fuchsia spokes, and a few smaller attractions in trailers around it. At the back was a huge blue tent, which looked plastic from where I stood, with the face of a clown emblazoned across it. There were people milling around the attractions, not crowds by any means, but it stopped Jake from walking any further. He nodded towards it.

"We're going in there?" I said.

He made a whine and nodded, but didn't move. It was hard to tell by his facial expression alone and I began to doubt we were heading for a hut at all. Now I wished I had picked up some of Jake's clothes so he could hurry up and phase back, not that Jake actually cared about his modesty, but I understood the predicament of running out of the trees with a naked guy by my side.

"Can you show me what the problem is?" I suggested.

He hesitated then lifted a paw. When I brought my hand to meet it, I imagined we were running again, straight into the circus. It was black at first, then the vision started, and I saw the hut again.

"Yes, I know about the hut, but how are we going to get there, Jake?"

He made a noise a bit like a grunt and the vision started to back out a bit until I could see a few sparse trees around the hut, and then some crunched up soda cans in the forest. I watched the vision pan out until I could see exactly what the problem was. Then it was obvious. The blue circus tent was no more than ten feet in front of the hut.

"Ah," I said, watching the vision fade to black. "So, we've got to get around the circus?"

He nodded furiously.

Ahead, where the tent was, there were a few cabins, presumably staff quarters, but the trees didn't sweep round that far. In fact there was nothing but open parkland bridging the gap.

"Well I guess we're staying here tonight?" I said, and brushed the floor a bit to clear the twigs so I could sit down, but beside me Jake nudged me with his nose. He gestured towards the circus, and that's when I heard another growl. Jake started clawing at the ground, saliva dripping from his mouth. Then he growled back.

"Demetri?" I said.

Jacob shook his head and when I looked up it was like he was smiling, in a wolf kind of way.

Up ahead there was a great applause, and then I heard another growl. The curtains that wrapped around the back of the tent started to pull back, and a man dressed in a red top hat and tailcoat came out. He was plump with an obviously fake handlebar moustache that did little to hide the scowl across his face. He tugged at a lead on his hand and behind him, a bear followed. It was fawn colored, huge for a bear, but not quite a big as Jake, with a golden patch across his back.

Jacob started walking out into view.

"Wait Jake, what are you doing?"

He turned to look at me and carried on walking. There were a dozen or so people ahead divided into three clusters; families with children and some groups of teenagers or twenty-somethings. From the stench, I imagined far more humans within the tent itself.

"Jake, wait." He turned in time to see me tug at the belt around my waist. "If you're planning on walking through there as one of the circus acts, then you better make it look good."

Even in his wolf form, I could recognize the familiar Jacob glare. I swung my belt towards him, and he caught it in his mouth, holding it taut between his teeth.

"Don't scrape your teeth, J, you'll break it."

Up ahead, the ringmaster was passing the bear over to some younger staff dressed in black. Two boys who looked no more than fifteen. The ringmaster threw a few short words at them before turning back to the side door of the tent.

I followed Jake slowly to the back of one of the stalls being pulled along by my belt rather than leading him. The stall was timber clad, painted in blue and purple vertical stripes with subtle signs that it was due a re-paint at the corners. No one seemed to notice our approach. The stalls were set out in a rough circle, with the tent at one end, the big wheel nearest us, and the tent's long entrance stretching out into the centre. Up close the doors were made of a thick canvas material, similar to the shabono back in the Amazon, only in a garish blue.

The boys led the bear alongside the entrance corridor and looked set to head out away from us, but the bear stopped walking and pulled them back.

"Come on Jacob," one of them said, yanking on a lead that wrapped around the bear's neck.

Beside me Jake started grinding his teeth together again. 'My' Jake tugged on my belt.

"What now?" I said. "Why can't we at least wait until 'Jacob the bear' is out of sight?"

He continued to pull on his make-shift lead, drawing me out into the open with him. We'd barely walked in front of the first stall when I heard the first signs of acknowledgement, but it wasn't from the bear, nor it's keepers.

"Ah, look at that one," came a female voice from the left. I started moving quicker towards the other side, this time pulling Jake.

"Can I stroke it, mommy," a younger voice.

"Sure. Lets go ask the nice lady."

Great. Even Jake stepped up his pace to get to the other side of the circle. We had to walk almost thirty feet to clear the entrance tunnel to the circus show and then there was another forty feet or so until we reached the other side where 'Jacob the bear' was disappearing between two stalls. I heard a few mutters behind me; presumably staff, and then I heard a great round of applause from within the tent. The bear disappeared from view ahead.

"Excuse me," came the lady from some way behind me. I ignored her and sped up. She started clicking her fingers at me. "I said excuse me," she said again.

When we didn't stop, the child let out a shrill whine.

Jake snapped round, and growled at them, baring a full set of canine teeth. The child screamed and jumped back behind his mother. She looked aghast, face flushed and jaw at least an inch lower than it should have been. I wasn't expecting such redness in her cheeks, and I sucked in my breath. Suddenly the taste for blood was there. The lady stared at me, then when I looked round, so was Jake; his beady eyes locked on mine.

"I'm okay," I whispered, swallowing four times to wash the taste away. That didn't work.

Jake pulled against his lead, in the direction that the other bear had gone, between a stall selling hot dogs and another with teddy bears. He had to tug twice to get my attention, and by that point I was just as keen to get out of there, for an entirely different set of reasons. Together we rushed across the clearing, leaving the mother and son behind us.

It wasn't long before there was another great peel of clapping from the tent; louder this time as we were just passing the big double doors at the front of the corridor that led into the circus tent. And that was the moment the curtains pulled back. The applause seemed to quadruple. Jake immediately turned away from the tent, but I saw in. There were maybe two hundred people - and those were the ones who were seated facing the doors – all staring at Jake and jeering.

"Jacob." The ringmaster said, in a booming voice that seemed to echo.

Then the ringmaster saw me. His face awash with surprise and then with anger, bringing even more flush to his cheeks than the woman's had. He lowered his voice, and turned to two assistants by his side. "She's stealing our bear!" He said. And this time we both ran.

Behind me, I heard small, quick footsteps as the two men came after us.

Jake bounded between two stalls, shaking them as he passed. There were three staff sitting on chairs behind their attractions. Now they sat up to see the commotion. Then astonished, they jumped to their feet.

"Jake," I said, running to keep up. He turned for long enough for me to reach out for him and jump on his back. He took us out the other side of the circus and round, almost back on ourselves towards the rear of the tent. "I don't think we should be heading back there," I said, but he didn't slow. Behind I could hear quick footsteps.

Then I saw the hut.

It was half camouflaged by the trees, and covered in signs saying 'danger' and with a voltage symbol that I hadn't noticed in his vision. I scrambled off him as I heard more and more footsteps behind us. I turned but couldn't see them. When I looked back, Jake was clawing at the ground burrowing into the earth.

"What?" I said.

He didn't stop until he'd unearthed some sort of bag, the slouchy type, packed full of stuff. With the straps in his mouth, he pushed me towards the door with high voltage written on it, and inside.

"What—?" I started to say, but I was already inside, alone. It was pitch black, and completely empty.

"Shuhh," Jacob said, following me in, now in human form. He was practically naked but for a pair of dark khaki shorts and an open bag with clothes spilling out in his hands. He twisted the door shut, pulled two bolts across the top and bottom, and crept over to me. Then he held me tight while we waited.

We heard footsteps far away, then closer.

"It was a girl," a voice said, and it shocked me how near it was to our hut. "She went in this direction, with the giant bear."

"Bear?" I whispered to Jake. He shook his head, scowled, but didn't speak.

"But it wasn't Jacob?" Another voice said.

"Far bigger."

"Could they be in the hut?" Another voice, male, and this time more steps up in our direction.

"Look, footprints." A different voice said, and then it went quiet.

We didn't hear anything until a sharp rattling on the door to the hut. I jumped.

Jake clamped his hand over my mouth.

"It's stuck," a loud voice said from outside the front door.

"It'd be too far big to get through the door."

"Let me see," came a different voice; the one I'd heard back in the tent. It sounded like the ringmaster with it's deep, dull drone. Behind him I heard another bout of applause, followed by a lot of movement, which made a great shuffling noise and slight vibrations in the ground.

"I've left my stall," one of the voices said. "Mick, shall I go back?"

"Yes," he said. "You should all head back. Sell those pieces of crap on your stalls."

Low footsteps crunched in the dirt and undergrowth as they headed away form the hut, but one heartbeat remained, and it was just as loud now as it had been before the others started to walk back to their stands. Beside me Jake shook his head, his hand still across my mouth. He pulled my head into his chest, his arms wrapped tight around my back, then the door rattled sharply again.

Outside I heard a sharp bang as the man's foot kicked at our door.

Then slowly he walked away.


	56. Chapter 56 - Jacob

Chapter Fifty-Six: Jacob

The run over was exhausting, but even so, I'd done everything to keep up my pace, even after we'd waded through the stream, effectively cutting off our scent trail and even when Demetri was so far behind he could never have caught up. Now after everything we'd been through, I couldn't tell her. How stupid I had been...

Darkness clung to us for what seemed like forever while the circus wound down for the night. Only when their adrenalin-fuelled laughter digressed into beer based mutters did I open the door ajar. It cast a small slither of light the color of seaweed, with a thick smell of damp leaves and faint, long drunken snores.

I threaded my fingers through Carlie's. She lay across the floor with her head resting on my knees. Still innocent, so very beautiful, and steeped in vulnerability.

"J?" she said, her voice barely more than a whisper. "Do you think all this was meant to happen - our time apart?" Worry lines contorted her angelic face. "Did we need absence to step back and see each other for who we really are?"

"I could always see you," I said, shaking my head. There she was, always the deep thinker. Maybe it was just a girl thing. She looked at stuff in ways that I would never understand. While I spent hours pondering the house I had designed, she most probably lay awake contemplating life, the universe and everthing. Normal humans found that concept hard enough.

"Carlie, can I ask you something?"

"Uh huh."

"Why did you go to Nahuel? Was it because of that vision in my truck?"

She looked away, a weak rouge flush creeping up her neck.

"I thought Nahuel would be able to help me. I'm not sure what I was expecting but he's the only 'living' being like me, I thought he might have some pearls of wisdom. It was a stupid idea anyway. As it turns out he had his own problems, and I just made them a whole lot worse, not just for him, but for them all…" Her eyes glazed over, and a fresh wave of guilt returned.

"Maybe his time was up anyway," I said, injecting a little positivity into my tone. "Maybe he was only meant to live a hundred and sixty years. I mean talk about greedy, most people are content with just one lifetime." In my line of duty, I should be happy with only a fraction of that.

"He was meant to do something... he wasn't like most people," she said. "Nor am I," she added, softly.

"You're right about that." How could anyone measure up even close to her. The thought filled me a sweet delight, calming the pain that was running up my leg from my encounter with Demetri.

She stiffened slightly. "Have you ever looked at me and thought that I'm just another bloodsucker?" She said, sitting up until her face was nearly level with mine. Her shoulders slouched and she pulled her legs up and wrapped her arms around them, withdrawing back into her shell. It was like she didn't even see it, like she couldn't understand why I'd picked her after all this time.

"No! You're not a bloodsucker, Car."

"You use that word all the time."

"You're the most perfect person and you don't even know it. The fact that you have to question all the reasons that I could possibly love you makes you charming, but honestly, when did you forget how special you are?"

Her face lit up with a cute little half-smile that threatened to spread into a full beam. She let a few curls fall into her face.

"But what about us... did you never think it's odd that you should imprint on… me?" She said.

I tried to catch her eye but her vision danced away from me, resting somewhere between the door and the rickety hut roof.

"There's no logic to imprinting, Car. It wouldn't matter who you are or what you are, it's kind of my destiny. I guess we're just meant for each other."

"And that makes it my destiny too," she said, grinning.

Finally. I pulled her under my arm and twisted my fingers around one of her ringlet curls watching the way it bounced back when I let go, savoring every last second I had with her. The venom felt like acid in my wound.

It made the guilt even greater to bear. I'd lied to her; something I'd always told myself I wouldn't do. But this wasn't the small Nessie that I'd watched grow up. With her effervescent beauty had come an ocean of fear, which she struggled to tread water in. It had taken me a while to work that out, but now it seemed so completely obvious. She was alone in this world, and now, finally, she seemed to understand that she had me, which is why I couldn't tell her about the bite.

After four nights in an outhouse in Jaynie's garden, I had grown accustomed to keeping quiet within the bare wooden slatted walls, and these were no different; in fact they were remarkably similar. Perhaps Jaynie's father, Ian, had got his shed from the same store on Guymere Street as I'd found this. Evidently we used them just as little. I hadn't even got round to stocking mine, but what did that matter now. We were safe, and at least for the meantime, protected by a circus of humans; a death toll like that would certainly contradict the Volturi's rules. I rested my head against an uncomfortable timber that supported the rear of the shed and shut my eyes.

I knew little of vampire bites. It was folklore not fact. But the whispers of the Quileute's were rarely unsubstantiated, and that was what scared me the most. The shame kept me from communicating it with the tribe, and the unsightly appearance kept me from Carlie. And she snuggled into my chest, the bite mark lay hidden beneath her.

"J," she whispered, some time later.

"I thought you were asleep."

She turned slightly so her face looked up at the timber ceiling. She was a greenish color with huge, very weird looking eyes in my night vision. "I thought those circus people would get us," she said.

"And do what?"

"I don't know," she said, and I caught her smile. "Cause more grief?"

"As if we don't have enough already," I said, dryly. "What did you mean before back in Jaynie's kitchen when you said you know about Demetri's scent. How is he masking it?"

"We're not sure." She sat up, looking at me in the dark. "But we think it's connected to these symbols we've been finding all over the place. Horizontal lines etched into trees."

"Lines? That was what he was doing when I saw him out the window," I said, trying to join the dots. That was the moment my claws took a swipe at his back, before he'd started to run. "But how do a bunch of trees do anything?"

"We found them in the Amazon, around our house and the cottage, behind the back of the school gym…" She added. "Emmett thinks there's witchcraft involved and he somehow conjured a spell or something to 'erase his scent'."

I snorted, entirely by accident, from trying to muffle a laugh.

"What, you think witchcraft is a bit far fetched?" she said. "Hello? You're a werewolf and I'm a half-vampire."

"Er, shape shifter and real vampire," I said. "We don't just come out in a full moon, and I don't think you can consider yourself a half - it's what you eat that counts."

"Really?"

For some reason she seemed happy by the comparison.

"I couldn't understand why I had all these thirsts and longings," she continued, "and I know you always said you'd be there for me... but I couldn't believe it, because something inside of me told me it didn't make sense. Think about it, J, our sole purpose in life is to basically eliminate each other. So how could it be possible that we're meant to be together?" She looked at me expectantly, with big round eyes.

I hadn't stopped to analyze why I could turn into a wolf. It was in my blood and I'd accepted it wholeheartedly, but actually I'd had a good ten years to get used to it. My father had nursed my fever for weeks while the transaction took shape, and I'd had Sam by my side almost the whole time offering words of encouragement when the sweats broke and the morphing process begun.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" I whispered. She shrugged, drawing her knees into her chest. Then I knew. She couldn't. All the vampire banter in the Res that I laughed at was a form of defamation against her. Our greatest achievements were not school grades or career promotions, but vampire casualties. No wonder she couldn't come to me; I'd spent so long fighting vampires and all the while ignored the simplest of facts, that she saw herself as one of them.

"Car, you're nothing like them. I don't see you as a vampire at all."

"But I am, Jake. I am, and there's no cure for me."

I took her face in my hands. "You don't need curing." And pressed my lips to hers with more force than I meant to. She pushed me away and looked at me strangely, then the corners of her lips turned upwards and she kissed me once more, softer this time.

We lay side by side for a while; my arm around Carlie's back, her face resting on my chest, my wounded leg bent and lifted slightly. I knew I ought to leave the hut for a bit to phase so I could check in with the pack again, if nothing more than to tell them about the bite, I'd have to tell them soon, but I couldn't steel myself from Carlie's gentle embrace. If that bite had afforded me only had ten more minutes left of this earth, then it didn't matter whether the pack had closed in on Demetri or not, I had to spend it here, with Carlie.

"You think Demetri was creating a 'scent-free zone' around Jaynie's house, in order to attack us?" Carlie whispered.

"Unless those things make something else happen, like telleporting, or sending messages back to Volterra?"

"Maybe," she said. She lay back down beside me and started teasing the knots out of her hair. "I can't understand what Demetri's up to. If Nahuel was the target then why would he threaten you so? And if you were the target, then why did Demetri bring Nahuel into all of this at all? Didn't he realize that by starting that fight he would draw attention to the fact he was snooping around Forks?"

"He was the target, he must have been because I interrupted _their_ fight. But Demetri is a tracker, and once trackers are antagonized they latch onto that person until their death. You know that."

"Oh," she said, frowning. "Then why don't we track Demetri ourselves, maybe the two of us could take him on and give him a taste of his own medicine?" She said, with a flicker of optimism.

"No way." I was too weak and that would take Carlie far too close to the very danger I'd spent all these years trying to protect her from.

"Then why don't we disappear together?" She said. "Leave Forks for good."

I shook my head. "Carlie, it's no good. Demetri is the Olympic champion of trackers, where could we go that would out-run him?" And how could I leave her holed up in some hiding place nursing my corpse.

"Nahuel had a hide-out," she replied. "He's evaded Demetri for the past six years. If I hadn't encouraged him out, he would still be alive." She then told me all about their coven in the rainforest, a vampire called Cruz, and the waterfall he hid in. They wanted Zafrina, and she had found a vampire with a great gift to protect her.

"Okay, so I can see why Zafrina was hiding, but what's Nahuel got to be scared of? Was he is love with her or something?"

Her face twitched and I knew she thought it the moment I had. Nahuel couldn't have been in love with Zafrina, because he had been in love with Carlie. She blushed a little and repudiated the comment.

There was no simple answer for my predicament. Really the question should have been coffin or crematorium; after all no wolf can survive a vampire's bite. My leg was throbbing again, a dull ache that flared up when I lay still. It was engorged now; a welt of swollen venom. For the first few hours, my only concern was that I'd turn into one of them, but surely it would have happened already. Instead I felt the venom eating away at me like a leech, slowly poisoning my blood.

"No lairs, no running, no fighting, that leaves us out of options," I said.

Carlie's earlier frown reappeared, only this time deepening the faint lines on her forehead and around her eyes, where no lines of worry should have been in her young life. "Demetri wouldn't mess with you if he thought my parents were protecting you," she said, eventually.

The thought had crossed my mind. If only the other Cullens weren't so damned enraged when I ran over to Carlie the day it all went down. For the first time ever, I could have done with Edward overhearing my thoughts and stepping his overprotective toes in to assist. But no. Instead they flung me away with an entourage of death threats and yet as I ran and hid, all I hoped for was to draw Demetri away from them, to protect Carlie.

"Your family didn't exactly welcome me with open arms the last time I came round," I said.

"That was different," she said. "Only they're a long way away right now. If only they hadn't gone."

"Who, you're parents?" I must say, this surprised me. Did they not care for her safety at all? When Nahuel died, I would have hoped if nothing else, for the whole coven to have rallied round at least for a while until the dust settled. Okay, so they didn't know about Demetri, but did they not at least suspect some kind of foul play? "To Dartmouth, again?" I said, feeling a monumental shift of negativity towards Edward and Bella for their desperately selfish conduct, and low esteem of me.

"They went back to the Amazon... with Alice and Jasper," she said, sullenly. I watched her face contort, with a sheet of remorse. "Well someone had to return Nahuel's body, or what was left of it."

That meant the four most powerful vampires in the Olympic Coven were out of the country. On the one hand, they could have led Demetri to South America days ago, which meant that if Demetri was back in Forks, he had done something to them. On the other hand, he could have sent other Volturi scum out on that mission and stayed put in search of me. That seemed more likely. I was less of a risk than the Cullens, and South America was one hell of a distance from us even by air. Either way the odds were not stacked in our favor.

"My parents," she said, again, and with her words came a small sob. "Don't you see Jake, they've been drawn into a trap. Demetri will have followed them and caught them unaware."

We could have been drawn into a trap more like.

She grabbed her cell and started to tap some numbers in. "We have to warn them that they're the target J. This is exactly what my mother was so desperate to get away from. It was never part of the plan to bring my parents into it."

If Demetri had gone for them then it would be already be too late. My guess was that by coming by her house yesterday, Demetri was gearing up to attack the non-gifted Cullens not the impossibly strong ones who had left their territory and their daughter totally unprotected.

She swung her cell in the air, seeking signal that these woods would never offer. Her eyes started pooling.

"They're practically invincible," I said, running my hands down her shoulders.

"Practically," she said.

"They wouldn't let anything happen, Carlie. Have more faith in them." I watched her face contort. I was right – they were better than that… unless Jane or Alec had gone for them. Caught off guard, without Bella's shield, Alec was pretty dangerous. "When was the last time you spoke to them?"

"Yesterday morning," she said. "Then when I called back last night, their phone's were off."

An uncomfortable silence fell between us.

"Carlie, what did you mean before when you said it was never part of the plan to bring your parents into it?" I said.

She sighed and re-adjusted. "The thing is, we found out when we were there that the Shaman coven were in training to take on the Volturi. Nahuel hated them, and together with Zafrina, they reared an army of newborns to fight them. Nahuel was supposed to find a witch and he believed that together, perhaps using the witches strength, he would generate enough power to destroy them. Could that be the war Demetri and Nahuel were shouting about?"

"Maybe, but why would he ask Nahuel which side he was going to fight on? Would that not be perfectly obvious?"

"Maybe they didn't know that it was Nahuel who could conjure the power?" I suggested. "Maybe they thought it was just Zafrina and that's why they were so desperate to find her?"

"That's possible," she said. "After all, Nahuel spent most of his days hiding in a cave in the middle of a waterfall. He didn't associate with the others at all." She paused. "But that still doesn't explain why Demetri was here yesterday." She paused again, this time her face darkened. "Unless he's defeated them already, and was just testing us to see if we knew anything yet?" The penny had dropped. She jumped to her feet. "If, as you say, he's already been to the Amazon, it means something bad did happen… and they're coming for us next?" She added. I felt a knot the size of a grapefruit lodge in my throat.

"And why would they go for you or your family after all this time?" I said, trying to calm her, although it did look pretty bad. "And if that's the case, why would Demetri knock on your door first? He's basically ruined his element of surprise if he's planning an attack, it doesn't make sense."

She started walking over to the door.

"Jake, I don't know what's happening, but we have to tell Carlisle and the others."

"Wait," I said, holding her back. "I need to tell the pack. We need to discuss this."

"Tell them on the way Jake, if I can't get service on my phone, then we're going back to Forks, whether Demetri is still on the prowl or not. We need to protect Carlisle, Esme, Rose and Emmett, and the only way we can do that it to give them as much notice and preparation time as possible." She pulled at my arm but my spine had already begun to quiver and ripple as the transformation began. I kicked the door open and got out just before I grew.

'_Hello, anyone there?'_ I said in my thoughts, once I'd phased. I pulled the door shut behind me and started to walk away on all fours.

'_Jacob!'_ It was Collin.

'_Hi Jake,'_ said Leah.

'_Jacob, you there?'_ Seth said. _'You alright?'_

'_Yeah, fine, you're all on your guard,' _I said. _'That's good because I think I know what Demetri's up to.'_

'_We know,'_ Leah said, cutting me off.

'_What?'_

There was a silence from all of them. Usually they garble all at once, and I'd step in and make them speak orderly, but now there was nothing.

'_Demetri?'_ I said.

'_Yes,'_ Sam said. _'And the others, the whole Volturi guard.'_

'_We need to help them,'_ I said. '_They won't be expecting it, because Demetri has this weird spell thing that masks his scent. I don't think Alice is able to foresee him anymore and Demetri may already have caught them off-guard, which means he's back in Forks for the rest of them.'_

'_The Cullens?' _Jared said. _'Jake, what are you talking about?'_

'_That's what he's up to. That's what Demetri is in Forks for.'_

'_The Volturi are coming alright,' _Jared said. _'But they're not headed to Forks, Jake. They're on their way here to La Push. They're coming for us.'_

That's when I felt myself lurch.

'_What?' How do you know this?'_

'_A psychic,' _Sam said. _'Long story.'_

'_This is because of me isn't it? He's coming for you all because I attacked him in the woods. Damn it. He said he wouldn't forget—.'_

'_We don't know why he's coming, Jake, just get back here so we can at least prepare,' _Sam said.

'_Okay, I'm on my way,'_ I said, making my way back towards the door of the hut. _'I need to get Carlie home, I don't want her having anything to do with this.' _I tapped it with my paw, and Carlie came out, clearly surprised I was still in wolf form. I tried to flick my head towards her to come with me.

"Your clothes?" She said, reaching for the open hold-all on the floor.

I shook my head, but she'd grabbed it anyway, so I threw it back into the pit and burrowed a load of soil and dirt over it. I kept a pair of shorts back and used my nose and front paws to wrap them round my non-wounded leg for later.

"What is it J?" Carlie looked worried.

'_Have you told the Cullens?' _I said, in my thoughts. I beckoned for Carlie to jump on my back, which she did, dubiously. _'Some are out of town. The Volturi might already have got to them. Bella, Edward, Alice and Jasper. But the others are here and we'll need their help. Sam – you'll need to speak with the elders. Get my father, get Sue, we need everyone on board to allow the Cullens onto our land. We need all of the younger ones – are there any new ones since this threat arose?'_

'_None that we're aware of,' _Leah said.

I started to race out across the circus clearing with Carlie on my back. I saw someone walking across the clearing, then he started shouting, and more started coming out, all shouting and running towards me.

'_Then just concentrate on the Cullen's,'_ I said, bounding across the circus. _'They're our strongest ally.'_

"Look it's that bear," a voice shouted from the circus crew. "With the girl on its back."

"Jake," Carlie said, he voice quivering. I couldn't even explain myself to her. I glanced around at the men that had started coming out of their trailers. Now there were some brandishing long wooden poles, which they were starting to light at one end.

"Catch them," the ringmaster said.

'_We could do with Bella and Edward and its not often you'll hear me say that,' _Leah said.

One of the circus men started running towards me with a flaming torch in his hands.

"Jake? What's going on? Get us out of here," Carlie said, alarmed.

I started to sprint as fast as I could towards the other side of the clearing, but my leg was slowing me. Every step now sent a stabbing pain up my thigh.

'_What if they're not back in time?'_ Sam said.

'_Then we're dead,'_ I said.

I ran between two stalls, but before I could do anything two men came out from behind the huts with more lit torches which they pushed towards me. _'Hold tight Carlie,_' I thought, though she wouldn't have been able to hear. Then I leapt high into the air, my bad leg aching.

I cleared the top of their torches by about a foot, which was close enough to feel their heat as I passed over. Perhaps if I let her run beside me then we'd be faster. But it would take too long to explain, and so, with Carlie on my back, I sprinted out across the open moorland.


	57. Chapter 57 - Carlie

Chapter Fifty-Seven: Carlie

"Tell me everything," Jacob said forcefully, looking directly at Ben. He was sitting nearest the kitchen part of Sam's open-plan house, with Jake pacing back and forth in front of him. Ben's shoulders were hunched and he stared into a mug on the countertop.

"What are we missing?" Jacob said. "The Volturi are re-active, meaning they don't come out of Volterra for no reason. What could we possibly have done to piss them off?"

"Kill vampires?" Collin said.

Jacob spun back to face Benjamin. "Start from the beginning."

"He's already told you everything he's seen," Leah said, standing between Ben and Jacob. "He's only trying to help you know, and he doesn't need to, he doesn't owe us anything."

"Why have you only just seen it?" Jacob said.

Ben paused, and looked up. "You wouldn't understand," he said. "It's blurry. Every one of you in my visions is blurry, like I'm not supposed to be able to see you, and then when I drank that stuff," he pointed to the mug, "I started to see things; everything became sharp. That's when I saw the Volturi people coming to La Push."

"He's only trying to help Jake," Leah said again.

Jacob glowered at her. "So we have Caius, Marcus, Aro, Demetri, Jane, Alec, Chelsea, Renata, and Heidi. Any others?"

"I don't recognize the other one," Ben said in a voice that wasn't a hundred percent confident. "He wasn't in Alice's photographs. You know it's not like they wear name tags in my visions."

'That's good enough," Seth said. "We know what they all look like from last time. Aro's got that long dark hair, and Caius—."

"I know what they all look like," Jake snapped.

I'd never seen him this volatile. Although he'd ordered me home at least a dozen times, even trying to take me back himself, I was adamant I wasn't leaving. I'd told Carlisle the same thing and it made sense to stay here. All I needed was the go ahead from the elders, and Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie, and Emmett would come onto Quileute lands and help too.

"So they plan to surprise us at nightfall," Sam said.

"We have no way of fighting Alec," Leah said, throwing her hands up in the air. "We can strategize all we want, but without Bella's shield, the minute he freezes us, we've had it. We have to evacuate the Res, and we have to do it now."

"I agree, we have no choice," Sam added, looking to Jacob for his agreement. Behind him, his wife, Emily wrapped her arms tightly around Sam's torso.

"If we evacuate then we basically have to tell them all about us," Jake said.

"They all believe the folklore anyway," Seth said. "At least I did."

"Why don't we say there's a gas leak at the school, or something?" Jared said from the corner. "Come up with a believable excuse to evacuate."

Jacob frowned. "Or a severe weather warning?"

"What, one that only affects La Push and hasn't made it onto the local news?" Jared said.

"So - the oldies don't watch television anyway?" Collin said.

My cell rang and they all glared at me. I left through the front door and took the call on the porch.

"Carlisle?" I said.

"Did Ben see anything else?" He said.

"No, just that the Volturi come here and basically wipe everyone out," I said, trying not to keep my voice calm. "Did you manage to get through to my parents?"

"Still no signal."

"Do you think..." I paused, walking on down the gravel drive, farther away from the house.

"No, Carlie. I don't think anything bad has happened to them. They were going to find Joham before their return; that alone could take weeks."

"Why now?" I continued, rubbing my eyes. "Anyway the elders are discussing letting you onto Quileute land as this very moment. Once they're done, you'll need to get over here right away, we need as many people here as possible."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone.

"Maybe you should start making your way over here now, so we don't waste any time. Ben sees the whole Res going up in smoke. We can't let that happen. We have to come up with a plan."

"Carlie," he said and his voice was surprisingly calm. "We're not going to be able to help."

"The elders, they're not sure at the moment, but I'm certain they'll see sense soon," I added. He paused and it was long enough for me to look up. Leah was out front, beckoning me to keep my voice down. I shook my head and started walking farther away from Sam's place, feeling an uneasy tremble within.

"What I mean is, we're not going to be able to help, even if the elders allow it," Carlisle added.

"What do you mean?" I spat, jumping down from the drive to a grassy area. "This is Jacob we're talking about. This is his pack. They came to help us. They have always come to help us. And last time, we didn't even know about my mom's shield, and they still came and risked their lives to save ours."

"Yours," he said. "They were clear that they only came to save you."

Another pause, and I choked back tears. "No, you can't."

"We have to look at the bigger picture Carlie. It's not us they want. It would be suicide."

"You would let me die here with them? Would you not help them, for me?"

He coughed into the phone; completely unnecessary since his throat was neither dry nor itchy. "We want you to come home. We've made plans; we will leave immediately. We must keep you safe."

"What? No? I won't leave him. You can't make me."

"No, you're right. I can't make you – I can't even come and get you," he said, an air of frustration in his tone.

"But I can," a voice rung out from behind me.

I spun round to see Jacob no more than three feet from me on the gravel.

"Do you think your father would ever forgive me if I let any harm come to you?" Jake said. I dropped the phone from my hand without even hanging up and shook my head from side to side. "Come on Carlie. Without Alice we are blind, and without your parents we are defenseless. Do you not remember what happened to Nahuel?"

I started to feel warm tears trickle down my face.

"But we have to do something, they're going to kill you?" I said in a small voice.

"But they're not going to kill you," Jake said. He took me in his arms and pulled my face onto his rock hard chest; his heart pumping like a racehorse. "Look at you, you're shaking."

"I need to be here."

He pulled away and looked at me straight on. The corners of his eyes were red and tired. "Carlie you're going home and you're going to be safe."

I shook my head profusely and he pulled me back into his arms. "What's the point of being safe, if it's without you?" My tears started to trickle from my cheeks onto his jacket.

He held me tightly for a few minutes; my eyes squeezed shut.

I opened them when he started to move. He took my hand and led me to his truck, which was parked up beside six others on a muddy plain beside the house. Leah, Sam, Seth, Collin, Jared, and Ben were on the front porch. One by one they spotted us, but none said a thing.

"I'll take Ben to Charlie's and then take Carlie home," Jacob said, sternly. Ben stepped forward, passed like a parcel from one to the next. Ben looked back at Leah who smiled at him and squeezed his hand. Then Jake packed us both into the car.

We didn't speak until we pulled up at Charlie's house. He was waiting for us and came out onto the porch, rifle under his arm.

"He'll be safe here with me," Charlie said, opening the passenger door. Ben looked horrified. He was shaking and looked so confused. Then he looked at me.

"I sure wish you were staying here too," he said, then he turned to Jacob. "If I see anything else I'll let you know."

Jake nodded. "Have you got the stuff?" He said.

"Oh the herbs," Ben said. He started patting his pockets and searching them one by one. "Oh no," he said. "I think I left it. In fact I remember after I boiled the kettle, I put the tea bag on the windowsill. It's in Leah's house." He looked up at Jacob apologetically.

"Is that the stuff that helped you see?" I whispered to Ben.

"Yeah," Jacob said for him. "It's an old Quileute mix. They say the warriors used it back in the day to see the wolf spirits." Jake looked at him long and hard.

"I'll take him back up to La Push for it," Charlie started to say, but already Jacob was returning to the car.

"No, it's important you stay here. I don't want Ben or Carlie anywhere near the Res. You got it? I'll get Leah to bring it. If I leave now, I'll meet her half way."

"You stay here until I get back, Carlie. And don't move an inch," he added, sternly, before pulling out of the drive in his truck.

With Jake gone, Grandpa Charlie ushered us inside to the front room. It was small and centered around a flat screen television that my mother had bought him for his fiftieth birthday.

"I'll go put the kettle on so we're ready for this tea," Charlie said. Ben waited until Charlie was out of the room before tugging on my arm. "Carlie, I did something really bad." Like it could actually get any worse.

He pulled me down to the sofa, and it looked like his face was going to crumple in front of me.

"What?" I said.

He stared at me and took a deep breath. "I think this is all my fault," he said, the panic creasing his face.

"Why Ben? What did you do?"

"Okay, when you asked me back in the car the other day why I came to Forks, I wasn't exactly truthful. Yes, I wanted to do the right thing to kind of make up for what happened to Jennifer Moloney."

"Jennifer who?"

"The girl who was knocked down in the car," he rushed, his voice rising.

"Shuhh," I said, "calm down, I'm listening."

He took a few quick breaths, his hands trembling.

"It's not just about Jennifer. In fact it's not really about Jennifer at all. It's about something entirely different." He took another breath. "On the 18th September 2014, Felix, this big henchman from the Volturi comes to my house in Biloxi and… kills me, or turns me, we're not exactly sure." His eyes were large and desperate, and he clung to the arms of my jacket.

"That's in eight weeks," I said.

"Exactly," he said, jumping to his feet. He started pacing the short room, crossing in front of the window. "I didn't know what else to do, I was panicking, and Alice suggested I call him up—."

"Who?" I said.

"Felix," he practically shouted turning from the window to face me.

"Felix who?" Charlie said, returning into the room with the kettle. He'd brought a smile with him.I strode towards Ben and pulled on his arm. "Sit down," I said. Then I turned to Charlie. "Do you mind if we have a minute?"

His face sobered, he put the kettle down and lifted his hands in the air. "I know when I'm not wanted," he said. He spun round, faced the bottom of the stairs, then changed his mind and made his way back into the kitchen. "Take as long as you like," he said over his shoulder, "just don't go anywhere."

I insinuated we'd like the kitchen door shutting, with hand gestures, and he did so, then I closed the door nearest us shutting our room off completely.

"Wait, wait, wait," I said, turning back to Ben who looked like he'd blow over in a light breeze. "You mean to tell me that Felix kills you? And you just called him up?" I said, watching the guilt flood across his face.

"Something like that," he mumbled. "But now everything's changed. I think whatever I said has somehow changed the future."

"I'm really sorry to ask this but do you still die in eight weeks?"

"No." Then his face crumpled and he pushed his whole body into one of the cushions on the sofa, and tried to hide behind it. "I die tomorrow night in La Push," he whispered into his cushion. I pulled it away from him exposing his fraught expression.

"Benjamin, calm down," I said, although inside I was panicking. "We need to tell Jacob. When he gets back—."

"No way. Absolutely not." It was the first time I'd seen him looking even remotely assertive tonight. "Don't you know what he'd do to me? It's my fault. All their deaths are my fault. I can't tell him, and you mustn't either. I can't even bear to look at him."

"So why are you telling me this, Ben?" I said, my eyes pooling. "First you tell me I'm going to lose him, then you say you are also going to die and now you say you may have caused it. Help me to understand why I shouldn't take you right back to the Res with me now, because I can you know." I pulled at my sleeves at a meek attempt at intimidation, but it only started the tears rolling down his cheeks. Then he started shaking. "I said I'd call him back," he said in a small voice.

"What?"

"I said I'd call Felix back in three hours. While I was on the phone to him, everything started changing. The future started to change and I couldn't think straight, so I fobbed him off and said I'd call him back when it 'was safer' to do so."

I jumped to my feet and went for the phone by the television in a black shiny stand.

"So phone him," I said, thrusting it in his face.

"What?" His eyes widened, then he started shaking his head.

"You made this mess. You've got to think of some way to get them out of it."

"I can't Carlie. I can't. I don't even know what I did to change things. All I said was 'I've called to negotiate my life?' and the future started changing. How do I unwind something when I don't even know how I did it in the first place?"

"You really said that?"

He nodded.

"So it was just making contact that sparked it?"

"But why would it?" He said.

There was a dry rumbling in the distance, the kind of chalky noise that I'd only ever heard from Jake's truck. I jumped over to the window. There was the faint glow of headlights bouncing off the trees at the top of the drive.

A minute or so later, he came jetting towards the house. He leaped out leaving the engine running and his headlights on. The passenger door opened too, and Sue Clearwater got out, lowering herself down from the truck with an enormous amount of grace. Again Charlie went out to meet them, rifle in hand.

Ben dragged me away from the window.

"You can't tell him," Ben said. "Not yet. At least give me a chance to put things right." He looked positively suicidal. He was shaking his head back and forth. "That guy," he said, referring to Jacob, "would eat me for dinner if he knew."

'_Not if I do first,'_ I thought.


	58. Chapter 58 - Benjamin

Chapter Fifty-Eight: Benjamin

I watched Jacob and Carlie through the window. She was sobbing into his chest and he was clutching at her, looking kind of absent, like the fire within him had gone out. He tried to pull away but she wouldn't let go.

"I'll come back and see you once they've evacuated," he said about ten times, loud enough that I could hear. She was still shaking her head and trembling as he drove off.

What Carlisle hadn't told her was that they weren't planning on fleeing Forks at all. These visions put me in an awkward position. Just because I'd seen something didn't mean that I had to share it, but it was hard to look at Carlie all upset and let her blame it all on Carlisle when he was only trying to get her out to safety before all hell broke loose.

"Right, let's get down to business," Sue said from behind me. She walked in with a mug cradled in both her hands like it was liquid gold she was carrying. "So you already tried Pititchu Kwaiya."

I nodded towards the tea bag dangling from her index finger. "Why is it called that?"

"It literally means moon water because it makes things clear as water," she said, sitting down next to me. Behind her Carlie ran past the door and up the stairs so fast that her body seemed to blur. Sue didn't look up, but Charlie straightened in the armchair and pulled his gun closer in to his body. I wasn't sure whether I should follow her up and explain what they were really up to, if in fact I'd foreseen it correctly.

"How much did you drink last time?" Sue said, distracting me.

"Maybe half the mug."

"Okay, try and drink the same this time and close your eyes."

I did as I was told and gulped it down. The moon water was only lukewarm at best and almost tasteless, slipping down with relative ease. I felt my whole body go limp and I concentrated on the Volturi in my mind.

A flash of teeth, sharp as a knife and glinting.

I opened my eyes immediately.

"What is it?" Sue said. Behind her Charlie looked apprehensive, but not nearly as freaked out as I felt.

I shook my head, took a breath and closed my eyes again. _Come on Ben, you can do it._

The image came back and this time it panned out until I could see four of them. Two were only children, teenagers at best, and with them were two adults, who under normal circumstances could perhaps have been mistaken for their parents. There was a woman, tall, slim, delicate features, with striking red hair. The other was Marcus, twice her width with the squarest jaw I'd ever seen. They all strode forward in unison.

Behind them, the moon cast pale ivory speckles onto the ocean, like orchid petals floating on the tip of each wave. Only the sharp jagged shoreline and steep cliffs drew any resemblance to La Push.

"They come in from the ocean," I said.

"That's the wrong direction from Europe," Charlie said. I opened my eyes in time to see him looking at the mug in my hands with skepticism.

I closed my eyes again and this time there were more of them. They were the characters from the pictures Alice had given me. The tall one they called Aro. The long-haired one called Chelsea. An older one that looked like Caius. They rose from the water and glided across the sandy beach and up towards the cliffs. Then I saw Carlie's image. It was piercingly sharp as usual. She was standing between the Volturi and some blurry figures behind which could have been Jacob and his cohorts. Then it all started to blur as they went for her. _'It's about the girl,'_ voices started to say in my head. _'It's all about the girl._' But the image was decomposing. Everything was blurring. Where I had seen Aro's face, I now only saw a cloak, and it was coming at me, then the vision went dead.

I opened my eyes panicked. What was I even doing there? I was perfectly happy to stay here with Charlie. Now my death wasn't in Felix's hands anymore. I'd lost my bargaining tool. Now it was Aro.

Sue put her hand on my knee. I jumped in shock.

"It's okay, it's okay," she said. I looked from her to Charlie and took a swig from the mug downing the whole lot. Then I closed my eyes again. Why wasn't Felix there this time? What had changed and where was he? I concentrated on him in my mind, just like Alice had taught me. I took a deep breath and let the vision start.

Now I saw a forest, stark green, and pelting down with rain. Compared to my last moonlight images, this one was dazzlingly bright. There in the shadows Felix hid. This time he was alone. He stopped to look up at the trees. There were lines cut into the trunks and when he saw them he grinned, then looked across at an unsuspecting figure below. He waited a moment then dropped down onto him. I didn't recognize the person, but he turned and pulled his fangs out at Felix, looking at him straight in the eye before Felix ripped off his head.

"Ben – how are you doing?" Sue said, jolting me from the vision. Maybe she could see the horror laced across my face. When I opened my eyes again the room seemed quite dull. Sue was close to me, watching me carefully with desperation in her eyes. "Did you see anything else?"

I didn't know what to make of it and so I shook my head. "I'm sorry Sue, I only see them coming in from the beach."

"That could be useful," she said. "I'll tell Leah. They can at least prepare. Do you think it would work if you had any more of the moon water?"

I shrugged. This moon water wasn't going to tell me anything I hadn't already foreseen. This whole Volturi clan were coming for the girl. What was she doing in the Res? Carlisle was very clear in his mission to get her out of there. I revisited the bright green vision. Felix was in the rainforest now. Alice was there with Jasper, Edward and Bella, which was the only reason that I could possibly connect the two events. Did the Volturi send him to get them? Surely not. From what everyone kept saying, the Volturi weren't strong enough for Edward, Bella, Alice and Jasper, so there would be no point sending just Felix to wipe them out. He wouldn't stand a chance.

What was I missing?

"Do you want a lie down?" Sue said.

I shook my head but she pulled me off the sofa and up the stairs. To the right must have been Charlie's room by the look of police uniform laid out on the double bed. To the left was another door, with seven wooden letters spelling out ISABELLA on it. By the very fact it was closed tight, I guessed Carlie was in there. Sue led me past it to the front room, which had a sofa under the window and a small computer station on an aluminum stand to the left. She pulled the sofa out into a low single bed.

"Get some rest," she said, and pulled the door to.

What does one do on the eve of their murder? Sleep because they look like hell or put their affairs in order? I didn't want to call my parents. I'd spoken to them at least once a day since I'd been here and they were growing evermore impatient with me. A regular phone call was the least I could do to stop them getting in the car and coming here to drag my butt back to Biloxi. But how could I tell them this? _I'm sorry mom, but tomorrow I'm going to die. _

I closed my eyes again and tried to imagine Felix in the palace in Volterra. This is what Alice would make me do. She wouldn't give up; she would keep trying until the answers came to her. Her first lesson was on how to concentrate on an event and try to visualize what happens next, and so I did, starting with the ballroom in the Volturi palace in Volterra.

Two-thirty came quickly, and once I'd dialed the international number, the phone was picked up almost immediately.

"Felix?" I said into the receiver, my hand shaking.

"Tell me everything," he snapped. I gulped, put my hand on my chest to calm myself and closed my eyes. I was about to start but he was already speaking again. "I want to know your name, I want to know about your gift, and above all I want to know what you see about me."

I took a breath. Calm down Ben. You know what to say. "My name is Ben."

"You said I will kill you, and then I will be killed. How? And why?"

"Everything's changed," I said. "An opportunity has arisen for them. The course of events are worse, the setting is different, and we no longer have months..."

"What do you mean? You said two months."

"It happens in twenty hours."

"Tomorrow night?" Felix said. "And I still...?"

"Yes, you still die, because you didn't listen. Felix, you gave me your word."

"Okay, you have my word. I shall spare your life at all costs," he said. "Now what is this all about?"

"It's all comes down to the girl."

"What girl?"

"The one born of a human mother and a vampire father. You know who I am talking about."

"You must mean Renesmee Cullen."

In my mind there was a big clock above the double doors of the Volterrean palace. When Caius, Aro and Marcus burst open, it read seven thirty seven. I only had maybe a minute more to explain everything before they arrived.

"They're going to order you to go straight to South America. There is a vampire there called Elijah, one of the so-called Shaman coven. Caius will tell you to kill him in a clearing within a circle of trees, which have funny line symbols on them. He will tell you to drag the body out of the circle and take it to the waterfall, but you mustn't do this. Do you understand? The Volturi are setting you up. They put you straight in the path of Bella, Edward, Alice and Jasper Cullen.

"He will tell you that your killing Elijah will cause a distraction and will delay the Cullen's from coming home, but they are too strong Felix. Edward will see through this guise and they will kill you. The Volturi know this. They don't even care what happens to you, so long as it stalls the Cullens and keeps them in the Amazon."

Felix didn't speak.

"Felix, your only way to stay alive is to warn the Cullen's that the Volturi are planning to attack Carlie or Renesmee as she was known, but you must really mean it or else Edward will hear it in your thoughts and kill you anyway. If you convince them that you will help them in exchange for your life, I can assure you that they will spare you.

"Your only chance to save yourself is to warn them and flee. Only by helping the Cullen's will you save yourself. Felix, are you there? Felix?"

I heard nothing. The line had gone dead.

I sat trembling in Charlie's bedroom for the next ten minutes or so. What had I done? If Felix had believed that his life really was in danger, would it make any difference? Would it be enough to make him switch sides? I had no idea whether Edward would kill him or spare him, or even find him in the middle of the rainforest. What if they'd already left? Alice said they were going to Peru to find Nahuel's father. What if they weren't even in Brazil to take the bait?

By now Caius would have dictated his instructions and Felix's actions would be set in motion. If Felix was on my side then by now the future would have changed. I tried to visualize the rainforest scene again for conformation, but nothing was coming. I squeezed my eyes shut but I couldn't so much as visualize a tree.

"My mind's gone blank Sue," I said, putting my head round the door to the sitting room. Charlie had his arm round her and as soon as she saw me she jumped out of his hold.

"What love?" She said.

"It's blank, I can't see any of them anymore. Not the beach, not Jacob, nothing."

She exchanged an anxious glance with Charlie.

"Will you put the kettle on?" She said to him, before looking back at me. She came to me and led me to the armchair that Charlie had been sitting in before, his gun still leaning against the side. Perhaps I could just use the gun on myself. That would put an end to it all, quicker and more painlessly than the alternative. What was I waiting for? It's not like tomorrow was going to get any better, not when I had no way of telling whether Felix was going to help.

"It's okay love," she said. "You've already given us more help than you could imagine."

Charlie walked in with the same mug in his hand, which was now refilled with more of the bland herb water. I thanked him and took it upstairs with me. There was a quilt over the sofa-bed which looked very Quileute. It was hand stitched and soft to touch and I soon found myself wrapping it around me. I tried to lay down but I knew I would never be able to sleep. How could I sleep?

There was a chill in the room, which I tried to ignore. It was only after the door to my room banged shut that I decided to do anything about it. The bathroom window must be open. This was usually the culprit in my parent's home back in Biloxi. My father spent many evenings opening all the windows, only for my mother, who would be cold even in an oven, to run around pulling them shut again.

I got up with the quilt still around me and went out into the hallway. There was a faint draft, but it wasn't coming from the bathroom because it had no outside window. There was just a shower at the far end, no tub, and the toilet and sink along the sidewall. Beside the bathroom was Bella's so called room where Carlie had run off to. Her door quivered a bit and I felt the cold air creep in again. I knocked.

"Carlie," I said. "How are you doing?"

I expected some sort of 'go away I'm not interested' teenager response but she wasn't even giving me the courtesy of that.

"What I told you before. I think I may have done something to help the situation." I said to the door. Still no response. Surely she'd want to know about Felix? Maybe now was the right time to tell her about Carlisle?

This time a peel of wind from outside made a whistle beneath the door.

"Carlie?" I said, pushing the door. It swung open easier than I expected, and the room was freezing. The windows were wide open and Carlie was gone.


	59. Chapter 59 - Jacob

Chapter Fifty-Nine: Jacob

By the time I got back to La Push a full evacuation had been set in motion. Families were loading their cars and stacking their valuables in a flurry of activity and Jared had taken post on the street corner, ushering them out. I didn't want to voice my disappointment in front of Carlie, but inside I was pent up with anger for the Cullen's at their refusal to help. I always made sure we stood by them; our position was abundantly clear. Now the tables had turned, where were they?

My street looked like a Christmas fair, with twinkling lights from every house as their inhabitants went from room to room stripping their valuables. Dad's front door was wide open and as I ran in I saw the corner of his wheelchair sticking out into the doorway. Rebecca was ahead holding onto a photo frame of our parents. It was before the crash, and dad was standing beside her, cradling Rebecca in his arms.

"Is all this entirely necessary?" She said, studying the picture with tears in her eyes. I took it from her and packed it into a half filled box that was only meant to carry the bare essentials. "It's only for a couple of nights, Bex, then everything will go back to normal."

"Yeah right," she said. "And I don't know why you made Richard stay in Hawaii, you don't understand anything about children Jacob, I've been managing them both here alone, it's about time he came and helped."

"And he will," Billy cut in firmly. "Just not tonight."

Having made the decision not to tell Rebecca about the wolf thing, my father and I had created quite an obstacle for ourselves. By way of amends he was getting her and the girls out of the house as quickly as possible. Then at least we could talk openly with the pack.

I should have been with the others, planning some kind of defense, but Leah was right, what tactics could we plan when Alec could freeze us all. We had twenty-four hours notice and we should be grateful of that. It was enough time to clear the Res. If we couldn't win, then we certainly could inflict damage on them.

I had already decided to go back to Charlie's before morning. I knew I needed my strength now more than ever and I should sleep, but I couldn't just leave her. If this was to be my final night on earth, it had to be with Carlie.

I rubbed my eyes.

"Hey, are you okay?" Rebecca said. Mild concern tarnished the corners of her already glassy eyes.

"I think I was near the gas leak," I lied, but I was starting to feel a bit dizzy. My hand inadvertency went to the bite.

She pulled me onto the sofa and went to make me a drink. When she was gone dad leaned over to me. "I think she's got it too," he said.

I looked up at him. "What? The wolf-line?"

He nodded. "There's something different about her. She's strengthened in the face of all of this." I hadn't seen any of that strength while she winged about her daughters.

"Rachel doesn't have it, so she won't have," I said quietly, watching Rebecca return. She pushed a glass of chilled water into my hands, which I drank all in one go.

I thought of Carlie again. I shouldn't have left her at Charlie's in her state. She had her own paranoia of being left amongst humans and the way I'd left her crumbling on the driveway did nothing to calm her state of mind, but what were my options? I couldn't take her home to the Cullens, not yet. If I did then Carlisle would whip her out of Forks so quickly that I'd never see her again, and it was too soon for that. We still had a day. I imagined I was holding her in my arms again like I had on the drive. Her scent so sweet yet vulnerable.

"J?"

I spun round on the sofa and there she stood in the doorway. She looked petrified, and smaller than usual, brimming with a vulnerability that caused me to run up to her and hug her; her tiny body disappearing within my grasp.

"Oh Carlie," I said, into her ear. Her face creased and I pulled her in tightly.

"Please let me help," she said.

With Carlie's assistance, we loaded the truck really quickly and then I told Rebecca to wake the girls. She carried Phoebe out because she was younger, and I took Scarlet, who by the time I'd picked her up, had worked out that this wasn't just some kind of midnight feast. She was still in her pajamas as I walked past Carlie and my father and took her out to the car.

"Pooey Uncle Jacob," she whispered to me, as I put her in the truck. "Why does that girl smell so bad?"

"I don't know Scarlet," I said, peering back round at Carlie and then to my father. Both sets of eyebrows were raised; Carlie's in disgust, and my father's in astonishment. I helped dad in and then handed Bex the keys.

"Rachel's gonna come in a couple of hours," I said to her, then banged the back of the truck. Carlie threaded her arm around my back and nestled her head into my chest.

"Where are they all going?" She said, pulling off the sidewalk.

"They're spreading out. They're safer that way." I put my arm around her shoulders. "Now why when I ask you to do one thing for me, can you not even do that?"

She bit her lip. "I came to tell you something about Ben." Then she dropped her voice. "But I think I should wait until Leah's gone."

"Leah? She's not even here."

Now that she mentioned it, I could hear deep panting, and her familiar footsteps, arranged so fast that she must have been sprinting. She hurtled round the corner but slowed as soon as she saw Carlie and her expression soured. It's like all this panic had given her permission to hate Carlie again.

"Oh, she's here," Leah said, into her cell phone. She didn't even look up to see my glare. "Yeah she's fine, she's with Jake, what else mom?" She went quiet as she listened. I was going to butt in and tell her not to be rude to Carlie but her expression sobered and then she went white.

"And did you not stop him?" She shouted into the phone.

"Shuhh Leah, what's the problem?" I said, trying to pull her in toward the house. Around us, people were still loading up.

"Why weren't you watching him?" Leah continued. For the first time ever her eyes were watering. "You were meant to be protecting him," she said in a whimper.

"Leah?" I said, this time softly. I took her hand, and she let me lead her into the house and to the sofa under the window, still holding the phone vigilantly in her hand. "They evacuated Dr Franks." She paused. "We don't know where they've all gone, that's the point," she said crisply.

"Leah?" I said. This time she looked up at me.

"It's Ben," she said, the phone still in her hands. "Charlie made him some Pititchu Kwaiya but he used the whole damn bag. He didn't know that only a tiny kernel goes in each brew, and now Ben's freaking out. He's screaming. He's incoherent." She dabbed her eyes. "I can't believe what's happening."

"Leah," I said again, this time sterner.

"What?" She snapped. "He came to help us. The poor guy has no part in all of this, and now he's tripping like he's overdosed on mushrooms or something."

"And now we have no idea when they'll actually arrive," I said.

"Or if the future changes?" Carlie added hopefully.

Leah looked disgusted. "Can you even imagine what that stuff is doing to him?"

I took the phone from Leah's hands. "Are you still there, Sue?" I said, and then I started punching numbers in when I realized that she wasn't. "Sue, it's Jake. Do we need to get him to hospital?" Sue sounded frantic too. She explained everything all over again. When I got off the phone, Carlie was consolidating Leah. I'd never seen Leah quite this upset, nor a moment when she'd let Carlie reach out to her. When your life's hanging in the balance, I suppose it puts a different spin on things.

"Right, back to Charlie's," I said.

Seeing as I'd dropped Sue off and had then given my truck to Rebecca, we had to take Sue's Nissan. Leah took the wheel, I sat up front, and Carlie perched in the back between the two seats.

"Jake, Leah, I don't know how to tell you this," Carlie said, as we pulled out of La Push. "Ben thinks he may have caused all this when he called the Volturi up."

Leah slammed the brakes. "What. Do. You. Mean?"

"Ben was here on an ulterior motive. He needed Alice's help because her saw a vision of Felix coming for him." She then told us about his phone call to Felix in Italy.

"What?" I cut in. "That kid just called the Volturi's house and asked for Felix?" He had more gall than I'd given him credit for.

"Something like that," she mumbled.

"That's nonsense," Leah said. "He's paranoid, and you're using it as some way to blame him for the Volturi. They're your people and you can't even keep vampires at bay."

"I am not blaming him," Carlie snapped back. "I'm just trying to figure out why now."

Leah put the car into gear and put her foot down. "We're going to get him better and get to the bottom of it."

"But think about it Leah," she said. "He calls Felix and then the future changes and the Volturi decide to come here to La Push. It must be something he did.

"Or a tremendous coincidence," she said, not taking her eyes off the road. Her speed had topped eighty and the country lane was barely wide enough to take oncoming traffic. "I just hope we can bring him back in time."

I sat back in my seat trying not to look at either of them. They were both frantic, the Volturi were definitely coming, and the bite was now green and septic and stinging like mad. I'd bandaged it up at my dad's bathroom while Rebecca orchestrated the packing. Now at least it wouldn't weep all over my shorts again.

Leah turned to Carlie. "Did it never occur to you that he is one of the good guys?"

"Did it never occur to you that we are?" She replied, and turned to look out of the window.

After that no one spoke.

Ben looked like he'd taken acid and woken up in hell. He shook like an epileptic; sweating, moaning and frothing at the mouth. Sue was dabbing his head with a small beige flannel when we walked in.

"Son, can I have a word?" Charlie said, pulling on my arm before I'd properly entered the room. "Is he going to be alright?"

Right now it didn't look like any of us were going to be alright. Ben couldn't lie still and every so often I saw him jerk and his eyes would flash open. "Yeah, sure, he just needs to sleep it off," I said, trying not to seem distracted by the horrified look in his eyes. I hadn't seen anything like this since Seth decided to try the stuff when he was small, but he only had a bit and it knocked him out flat for fifteen hours. At the time we were all jealous that he'd missed a day of school over it and no one really cared just how bad he'd felt the whole time. "It just may take a while," I said, looking over Charlie's shoulder. I didn't particularly want Carlie in the room watching him in this state. She was too fragile for all of this and we didn't have much time left. "Can I just get Carlie?"

He didn't move. "Just one last question?" He said, raising his eyebrows in the same way my dad does. "Why have I just had a call about a break-in up in Holly Heights, in Pam and Ian Lewis's place?"

I shrugged. "Beats me?"

"Then why is that Air Tide Jumper I bought you for Christmas in their shed, and your t-shirt on their kitchen floor," he hissed, "and more importantly why is Carlie's car parked out front of their house?!"

Behind him Ben screamed and it made Charlie jump. He spun round, checked inside the room and then ushered me farther away, down the stairs.

"You've got to start giving me some answers, Jake. What the hell's going on here?"

"Look, it's a long story Charlie," I said. I hadn't even thought about the car.

"The back window in the kitchen was ripped out of the house and there was freaking fur on their lawn. Ben here needs a hospital but you lot are all saying no, and what's going on at the Res? Why can I not get through to your dad? Why I am being kept here on babysitting duty. Do you know what you're doing son?"

"What I'm doing?" I snapped. "I'm trying to keep a handle on your granddaughter, while protecting the whole damn Reservation, while your so called daughter has disappeared in a puff of smoke and you know what, we could really do with her right now. You know what's got us in a panic. It's him. It's Ben." I pointed up the stairs. "We've got till tomorrow night, that's it, to get our fighting boots on and fend them off once and for all, and from what he's telling us, we don't stand a chance."

He gripped my shoulders with more force than I'd have given him credit for. "You know I'm on your side," he said, firmly, "but you've got to let me help you."

That's when I felt myself start to shake.


	60. Chapter 60 - Benjamin

** SORRY FOR THE DELAY, IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY PARTY LAST NIGHT!

Chapter Sixty: Benjamin

Trees formed walls like prison bars. I walked towards them and that's when the vampire came for me. At first it was just a blurred shadow in my peripheral vision; enough to make me flinch. Then when I started to recognize what it was, I tried to dodge away from it. I couldn't fight, my reflexes were too slow and my limbs heavy like they'd been reinforced with steel and charged by some magnetic force. Its face rose in front of mine, with sharp fang teeth dripping with venom and raging fire eyes. Long white hair danced around his face as he twisted round and about.

He swept at me with arms so quick I expected to be thrown across the meadow. I braced myself for impact; the final moments in my uneventful life.

But I didn't feel a thing.

I looked down expecting my legs to buckle beneath me or my torso to have a gaping wound, but instead I saw an enormous wolf-like creature sweep into the vampire. On its hind legs it was level with the branches in the trees, with black eyes the shape of rugby balls. It threw the vampire back twenty feet then landed on front paws and started to swipe again into the returning figure of the vampire. This time the vampire was closer. He ran straight at me, clean severing my body, which spun into a haze of color before collecting itself back into original form again.

My body was hazy, almost translucent. I could see the green grass on the floor of the meadow beneath my feet. When I reached out ahead to the broken remains of a building my hand went through the brick.

When the wolf's tail lashed back towards me, I didn't collapse, I didn't feel a thing. I was invincible. I pushed forward between the sparring creatures with growing confidence. Behind them there were others; more wolves and vampires, all loud, angry and absorbed in battle. Some were laying flat, some in the air, but nearly all their paws and arms wound together like tangled ropes. And none of them even blinked at me.

A vampire from afar, this one darker than the rest, with long threaded black hair and a ski slope nose, came towards me so quickly that I couldn't stop. If he went to hit me then it didn't work; his whole body disappeared within mine and then came out the other side. I turned to face him, to share the horror of my new body, but he didn't turn.

That's when I realized the truth. How wrong I was.

I was not invincible, I was invisible. A ghost amongst monsters.

Was it my afterlife? Was it my death? I tried to wake up, to pull myself out of the vision like I always had before, but there was no exit, no trigger to release me from this hell.

And so I stayed in the battlefield, amidst the bloody carnage. Trapped.


	61. Chapter 61 - Carlie

Chapter Sixty-One: Carlie

I clung to Jacob all night, awakening with a start at first light. The house wasn't big enough to mask Charlie and Sue's conversation down in the kitchen. While we'd fallen asleep by accident, it seemed they hadn't been able to.

"How is he, Leah?" I said, walking out of the kitchen with a hot cup of coffee that I intended to give to Jacob. She was sitting at the top of the stairs hugging her legs, which were pulled up in front of her so that her chin rested on her knees.

"Still asleep," she said.

I put the cup into her hands, which she accepted willingly, clinging onto it rather than drinking it like the steam would heal her anxiety. "Seth was out for a lot longer than this," she continued. "And he had far less of that stuff. Ben could be out cold for a week."

"So we're going in blind," Jacob said, coming out of the room behind her. He ran his hand through his hair. She didn't turn to look at him, but nodded into the mug.

"But you don't need to go in at all, J," I said. "What if you're not there? What if the pack spread out like the rest of the Quileute's; that way you wouldn't have the confrontation and you wouldn't be putting yourself straight in the line of fire. You've all said it; this is a battle we can't win."

"It's not your battle," he said. "It's about time we stood up to those murderers. We should have done it a long time ago."

"Not like this." I sunk onto the second stair, my back leaning against two wooden balustrades.

Leah was staring at me; desperation laced her dark pupils.

"Well if you're not going to give up, then I can't," I said.

Leah rubbed her eyes. Behind her Jake was shaking his head.

"Has Nahuel's death taught you nothing?" Jake said. "I've been so selfish letting you stay here this long. I should have returned you to Carlisle yesterday as promised." He closed his eyes for a moment. "I'm going to take you up there now. He'll at least get you out of this town."

"Only if you'll come with me."

He sighed and this time it was laced with anger. "Carlie, we're not having this debate again; we're not bargaining over your safety."

"He's right," Leah said. "You know what if I had someone to protect I wouldn't let them make foolish decisions either... "

She glared at me while she stood up, and then walked towards the room Ben slept in. I'd tried with her, I really had. "I'll stay here till you get back Jake," she said over her shoulder. "Then we'll reconvene with the others down at First."

Jacob pulled a jumper over his T-shirt, and stepped into a pair of dirty white sneakers, shaking his feet to get them on properly.

Charlie and Sue were both still hunched over their coffees when we walked through the kitchen, albeit the mugs were now empty and their conversation sparse. We bid them farewell and headed to the car.

We didn't speak until we passed Maine Road. "It's not too late to change your mind," I said.

He shook his head, a slow undignified movement.

"I won't go without you, you know," I said.

"Don't be silly, Carlie."

"What happens if you don't come out of this? My parents may never return from the Amazon? Say Demetri didn't get to them. Maybe he didn't need to, and Zafrina and Cruz attacked first, misinterpreting the bag of Nahuel's remains, avenging Nahuel's death. Then all this really is in vain. You and the others are going to get yourself killed for nothing."

"You'll still have Carlisle and Esme, Rosalie and Emmett," he said, as he pulled up at the lights. The roads were quiet and we didn't wait long before the signal started to change.

"Why does it not bug you that they aren't helping?" I said. "They've hardly called. It's not like they even seem keen to get me out of here. Why are they not staying to fight?"

'They're just looking out for you."

"And themselves."

He didn't agree nor disagree; in fact his expression looked stuck somewhere between disgruntled and plain defeated. When he pulled up at the next junction, he stopped the car and pulled the handbrake, although there was no passing traffic to wait for.

"Carlie," he said, firmly. He took both my hands in his, with a raging hot grip. "I know you have not always been treated like a daughter or a sister in my house, like you should have been," he said. "But afterwards, will you visit them? Not all the time, but check on my father, just to make sure he's getting on okay."

"Don't ask that of me, Jake. Don't ask me anything that insinuates you're not coming to find me straight after tonight." My throat started to swell. I reciprocated Jacob's grip and he pulled me in tightly and held me for what seemed like an age; until a car behind beeped its horn.

He pulled away and thrust the stick into drive.

"I've got to look at the bigger picture, Car," he said, after a moment. "I know what I am here for - I wouldn't be able to phase if it wasn't for a good reason, and this is a better reason than any I can think of."

"Because they're the Volturi? Say you kill them, do you not think another coven will take their place?" He took a right onto Dury Street West.

"And if we don't kill them, and we just hide, do you not think they'll come back?" He replied, speeding up.

I wished he wasn't put in this position. I wished to see my parents; just to know they were okay. Only they could save us and here without them we were so vulnerable. The only one here with a gift was me and I couldn't extract information from people the way that my father did nor protect people the way that my mother did, nor see the future like Alice.

I was so mortal it was frightening.

For the first time, without the cocoon of protection that usually wrapped around my every move, I felt terrified. It would be difficult to find a way down to La Push. Even if Carlisle, Rosalie, Emmett and Esme wouldn't, I couldn't just leave him now, after everything.

"Who are you calling?" I said. He didn't answer but squinted at his handset tapping in a number as we entered the bracken tunnel driveway that wound round to the house. It was dark as usual under the wealth of trees, despite it being mid-afternoon.

"You sorted at your end?" He said into the phone.

I only looked up at the road for a second. "Look out," I screamed.

Jake saw the girl and slammed the brakes, letting the phone drop from his hands.

She stared straight at me, motionless in the middle of the road, her silhouette caught by weak strains of daylight. Only the crescent of an ashen white face was visible beneath a shroud of black cloth. It was clear that the car wasn't slowing nearly enough, but still she didn't move.

Instead, a petite hand threw the black cloak off her head revealing long ice blond hair. Jane. From the Volturi. She let out a shrill laugh, which echoed into the humid summer air.

The hood was the first thing to hit as it collided with her outset hand, crumpling like paper in her palm; then the windscreen, which curved slightly as the car dipped forward before smashing in a great wave of relief around her. I ducked my head from the rainfall of shards. Still her laughter ensued.

Even when the car rocked back heavily onto the rear wheels with a deep booming thud, and a cloud of thick black debris mushroomed out, Jane tainted the silence with her witches cackle.

Jacob was silent for a few moments before he started coughing.

"You okay?" I whispered.

He winced as he fought to free his legs from parts of the crushed engine, which had closed in on us during the crash.

"Renesmee, oh we have been excited to see you," a high-pitched voice said. Her arctic face peered down at me through the bent window frame. "Don't you want to come in and join the party?"

'Party', suggested more than just one person. She narrowed her eyes at my hesitation.

"You don't want to keep the others waiting do you?" Anger and a burning curiosity raged through her child-like red eyes. "You know how impatient we are."

"We?" I whispered. It was too early for the others. Ben had foreseen them coming in after dark to La Push.

Jane watched me climb out of the car with a dark smile.

"Wait Carlie," Jacob said. He kicked the driver's door clean away, spraying car parts out into the forest like confetti onto the remnants of the trees that Emmett had felled only hours earlier. Blots of blood now showed through his trouser leg.

"And who is this?" Jane said, turning her nose up to Jacob despite his injury. He stood at least a foot taller and easily twice her weight. "Why if it isn't the big bad wolf," she mocked.

He growled through his teeth, his body already starting to ripple.

"No, Jake," I said, leaping over the car to his side.

"Arrghhh," he yelled, falling to the ground. His hands clutched around his head.

"Stop it Jane, let him go," I screamed. He rolled around the floor as Jane let out another childish laugh. After a moment, her gaze shifted slightly and Jake fell silent. She jumped over the car to our side, in a clean, swift maneuver.

"Now are you going to behave?" She said, nudging him with a small foot into his side. He groaned and rolled over.

She enjoyed watching him struggle to his feet before leading us through the driveway. I couldn't be sure but Jake seemed to be limping, and the blood was now a deeper stain running down his leg with not even a hint of scent.

The walk up to the main house was silent and forced. The helpless feeling of being led like a lamb to slaughter was all too familiar from the Amazon. This is what frightened Nahuel. This is what kept him trapped in that cave.

It was only when the house came into view that Jane stepped back forcing us in first. I clung onto Jacob's hand as I mounted the front steps, trying hard not to consume him with the fear I felt.

No heartbeats, no breathing, no inane television chatter. Silence like this was hard to achieve. A light click of a stiletto on the marble floor, a gentle tap as the car door closed; those were the sounds I searched for, because that would at least tell me everything was normal, but I didn't hear them now. I heard nothing, and that sent my heartbeat racing out of all proportion. If Jane and Demetri were in Forks, then they all had to be here. But why not La Push? What had changed?

I rounded the wall where the hallway melted into the sitting room.

To the left Carlisle held onto Esme and Rosalie with each hand. Emmett was next to them, taller than the others. He wrapped his hands over his body, sticking out his broad, muscular chest. Esme put her arm out to me, allowing me to convey the crash that had just taken place as she enveloped me. I also showed her a sequence of Ben in his sedate form, now that the moon water had put him into a deep sleep.

"Ah Renesmee," a voice started. It was Caius, one of the three Volturi leaders. Beside him, on the far side of the room, nine others stared back at me, in front of the long windows that overlooked the side of our house. "Haven't you grown?" he continued, with a sickly sweet tone. He exchanged amused glances with Aro and Marcus who flanked either side, each pair of eyes twinkling in the daylight. "Nahuel was right about how quickly that would happen."

Somehow when he spoke, his lips remained almost stationary. A deep shiver ran the length of my body. The intimidation might as well have been written on beads and hung from a chain around my neck, because no matter how many times I swallowed, or how I thrust my hands behind my back, I couldn't stop the fear from bubbling through my veins.

So Jacob was right to think that we were the target. I tried to capture his attention, but Jake was staring straight at Marcus, his mouth pressed firmly into a hard line.

Marcus stayed by the sofa, his hands in his pockets, while Caius advanced forth.

"We've been waiting for you," Caius continued.

"Yeah, sorry, she had a bit of a crash," Jane said, falling in line with the others across the room. Beside her, Heidi, Chelsea and Renata giggled. Their faces had not changed a bit since I met them all those years ago. Heidi was still impossibly beautiful, Chelsea was quieter and sultry, Renata was smaller and lithe, and Caius still took the lead, ignoring them to address us.

There was a new one in the corner beside Alec and Demetri. He hung back slightly behind Chelsea. He was just as broad as Emmett's, but with huge almond eyes and soft cheekbones that looked slightly feminine. He had jet black hair which was slicked back to the nape of his neck and while the others stood perfectly straight, he leaned back slightly against the wall. He caught me looking and lowered his jaw slightly, enough to see the glint of his canine teeth.

"My, you have grown," Caius said, singling me out. He looked me up and down and then moved his eyes over Jacob, running his tongue over his teeth. "Let's get started."

"Started with what?" I whispered, my voice a little shaky.

"The trial."

Beside me, Jacob's eyes widened. Carlisle, Esme, Rose and Emmett didn't flinch; their attention remained locked on Marcus.

"It has come to light that certain rules have been broken, certain lines have been crossed," Caius continued.

"What?" I uttered.

"Unbelievable," Jacob murmured back, shaking his head. If Caius heard him, he didn't let on.

"As always, we shall be prosecuting you individually," he continued.

"It seems only fair," Aro added, with a gush of pleasure.

"On what charges?" Carlisle said, his tone even.

"We don't murder people here," I added.

Beside him, Aro smiled broadly showing the pearly whites of his teeth and dark red gums. "It's not humans we are here to protect," he said, darkly.

"We have been aware for some time that an army have been created to overthrow us," Caius said, with no emotion. "We hoped that you would not want to get involved, given our history." He raised an eyebrow at Carlisle. "But we have been led to believe otherwise."

"That's preposterous," Carlisle said.

"That's not what the girl thinks," Aro replied. Now ten vulture faces turned their gazes upon me, with narrowed eyes and raised chins. Alec and Jane looked quite excited by the whole thing.

"I do not," I said, a little too quickly. From my side, Esme squeezed my hand.

"Oh but you do, sweetheart, otherwise you wouldn't have discussed new leaders and an age beyond Volturi leadership with your little friend, Nahuel," Aro responded, and immediately I recalled our conversation out in the woods the night of prom.

"That wasn't me saying all those things," I said.

"Rule 426 of the Code states that acts of heresy are to be reported to the Volturi immediately. You say it - you hear it, what's the difference? The intent is still there, and that is something quite unforgivable in our eyes." Caius said, exchanging a look with Marcus, who's usually absent expression was now quite illuminated.

"A code?" Carlisle said. "This is new?"

"Do you deny you knew about this army?" Caius challenged.

"We would never support nor condone anything of the sort," said Esme, whose hand now hurt mine where she gripped it. "Whatever you thought you heard must have been misconstrued. We keep a peaceful life here."

Aro turned to her. "Ah Esme, dear Esme, we know they went there," he said, pointing a long bony finger at me. "Do you think us stupid?"

"Of course not," Carlisle said, "we would never insult your intelligence. They merely holidayed in South America. Since when did it become a crime to travel?"

"When you bring fugitives back with you from holiday, that's when."

'_It's my duty to end their dictatorship_,' Nahuel had said.

Jacob cocked his head at them. "Well you killed him, job done, there's no threat anymore. We're certainly not going to launch at you or else we'd have done so already. What's the point of all this scaremongering?"

"_We_ killed him?" Caius's eyes settled on Jake.

"Now you know that's not true wolf, don't you?" Demetri said from beside him.

"He's a liar," Jacob muttered, scraping his jaw together. Everyone settled judging eyes on Jacob, even Emmett. "Carlie, I didn't, you know I didn't," he pleaded.

"And that brings us nicely to your charges, wolf," Aro said, and beside him, Caius looked eager to say it first. "For the murder of Nahuel, a wanted criminal, and for the attempted murder of Demetri—."

"What?" Jacob said.

"Do you deny fighting Demetri?" Aro said. Beside him Demetri stole a smile.

"No but—."

"Then, correct me because I don't understand… you were fighting him but you never intended to kill him?" Aro looked straight at Jake. Beside him, Demetri sneered. Heidi and Renata giggled and it only infuriated Jake more, who pulled his hand from mine, and clenched it tightly into a ball. "You know we've overlooked quite enough from you mutts. We do our very best to safeguard our own." From who? "But you and your hounds are no more than parasites blighting our race."

"He was the one—," Jacob started, pointing his finger straight at Demetri.

"He was the one who did what?" Aro shot back, his voice growing louder. "He was the one who was protecting our kind. And protecting your girlfriend I might add." Jacob reddened all the way down his neck. "You wolves can't see farther than the end of your noses," he continued. "If only you were house trained." Aro stopped to smile, proudly. "Well this time you purposely perverted the course of justice."

"That's not true!" Jake shouted.

"More so, by killing Nahuel, you made sure the information we needed from him was lost forever. Do you think we would have kept him alive this long if we hadn't needed something from him?"

"They're lying," I added, my voice heightening in tone.

They knew so much; what information could they possible have wanted from him?

Esme grabbed my hand firmly, whispering 'shuhhh' under her breath. Perhaps they wanted to know Zafrina's location? That could have been the information they yearned, which meant only one thing. If they were still after her location then they mustn't have followed my parents back to the Amazon after all? Or maybe they did, but they'd ambushed them too early before my parents reached Zafrina?

"Oh, there's no denying it, Demetri witnessed it all. He saw your wolf kill Nahuel," Caius said, throwing his hand up in an over-pronounced gesture, which for a vampire of his age and orientation was quite unnecessary. Demetri couldn't keep the smile from his face, and all the while Jacob's face deepened in color.

"I don't know why we're wasting our time even explaining ourselves, Caius," Marcus said. "We don't need to actually justify ourselves to a wolf."

"Yes, you're right, Marcus, what purpose is a trial to a species that we don't even recognize," Aro walked forward, eyes fixed on Jake.

Jacob stepped forward towards them. "This is a crock. You walk in here with this bullshit—."

"I wouldn't," Jane said, but Jacob seemed undeterred. Jane raised her arm towards him but it was Demetri who pushed her hand back, smiling.

"Allow me," Demetri said. His eyes locked on Jacob's, whose lips were curling back over brilliant white teeth.

"We finish this now Demetri," Jacob uttered and started to leap into the air, his skin prickling with patches of fur.

"Jacob, no," I said, lurching forward. Hands came from behind me, pulling me back, as Demetri launched through the air towards him. They met mid-flight, vampire and wolf. Jacob's claws and Demetri's arms entangled together in a furious scuffle.

Demetri pulled a sharp, violent swing, shearing through the chandelier flickering spawns of crystal around the room before crashing down heavily through the coffee table. They grappling through the sheets of broken glass and splintered wood, then rolled together towards the windows that wrapped around the rear of the house.

I sent a vision through to Esme of us helping him.

"No," she said under her breath, holding my hand firmly. "We must wait."

Wait for what? The wolves? My parents? No one was coming to save us. It wasn't how Ben had predicted at all.

I heard a sharp wolf howl and flicked back to see Jacob throw Demetri across the room and pounce upon him with all fours, his rear left leg bleeding again.

"Enough," Aro said, seeing Jacob punch Demetri through one of the glass windowpanes that led onto a decked area. "Alec, end this."

Alec's face lit up. He nodded proudly and a grey swirling mist seemed to leave his complexion and creep out towards Jacob, like a great wave. It spread across the room in a matter of seconds and froze them both.

"Finally," Aro said, as a new quiet settled on the room.

"Get Demetri," Caius added, shaking his head.

Alec glided over, pulling Demetri's statuesque frame out of the mist. His body started to respond immediately; carrying through with the punch he'd started mid-attack. Alec swerved out of Demetri's way, laughing as he did, but Jacob didn't move. Demetri took a kick at him before settling back into line with the others.

"No," I shouted, holding back sobs, at the unchanging expression on Jacob's canine face. "Release him."

"It's okay Carlie," Esme whispered. "His senses have been numbed but he's not in any pain, and it's important that we stay calm." I touched her cold hand again sending a vision of his bleeding leg. Then I sent an image of my parents. If only they were here. We needed them so much.

She nodded back subtly, and this time Rosalie caught me eye, her expression full of sympathy.

"Now now Renesmee," Caius said. "Did your parents never teach you to respect your elders?" He laughed, and Demetri and Aro joined in, cackling like a coven of warlocks dancing around their cauldron. Only it was Jacob who was their triumph, and I had a feeling he wouldn't be their last. "Speaking of Bella and Edward, it's a pity they couldn't be with us... If only you didn't cloud Alice's visions," he mocked.

"Well, we might as well get this over with," Caius continued. He flicked his gaze back to Alec, who nodded. The look of concentration encompassed him again and the grey mist started to grow towards us, like a great dark thundercloud.

"Caius, surely you don't mean that we are not to stand trial?" Carlisle said, not taking his eyes off the mist. "I don't recall our hearing."

Caius shared an exasperated expression with Marcus and Aro.

"Carlisle," Aro started, moving forward in between the other two. "You have to understand that under the circumstances I think it's better to conduct… a one-way hearing."

"A one-way hearing?" Carlisle looked back at Alec. Being numbed out of our senses, they could pick us off one at a time at their leisure. Would we be able to move at all? It didn't look like Jake could.

"You understand, we can't be having anymore little outbursts. It's just so amateur."

"You know me better than that," Carlisle responded, quickly, taking a step forward towards the mist.

"Yes, Carlisle, we know you so very well and don't worry we'll grant great lenience when considering your involvement." Aro sighed and turned back to Alec, giving him a nod.

So this is how it would be. We had lived this humane life protecting everything and everyone, yet we were still going to die. Even worse, we would watch our fates through frozen eyes. The thunderous cloud loomed in front of us, and we crept backwards edging away from it until our backs hit the wall.

"But what about if I show you some visions of Nahuel's coven back in the Amazon?" I said, suddenly. The grey mist stopped and Caius's eyes flashed at the notion. "I know he is no longer here to tell you but maybe something in my visions could be useful to you? Maybe then you may grant us some actual leniency?" I continued. Beside me Emmett nodded. Surely if they'd followed my parents back to Zafrina then they'd know this already?

"You saw where they live?" Aro asked eagerly.

"Yes, I know all about their Shabono; it's their dwelling in the forest. I can show you the vampires in his coven, their training grounds, everything."

Caius looked at Aro with intrigue.

"I even know about Nahuel's secret hide-out," I added. "The vampires down there don't even know. It's where Zafrina hides."

Aro stepped forward a bit too quickly. "I will oblige you, Renesmee."

Bingo. Zafrina was still alive. A glimmer of hope rekindled inside of me for the safety of my parents, Alice and Jasper.

Caius thought for a moment longer, and nodded.

"And I too," said Marcus, without even an ounce of interest across his face. "As long as it's quick."

I stepped forward. "Well we shall have to get together in the center of the room," I said, reaching out to Esme first.

"Not them too," Aro sneered.

"It's only fair that they should see too," I said, pulling on Esme's arm. The moment she took my hand, I conveyed a vision to her.

"Absolutely not," Caius growled through his teeth.

"It's all or nothing," Carlisle added, stepping forward to take my hand. He squeezed my hand uncomfortably tight. I imagine it was some kind of warning; I knew to be careful of Aro, if that's what he meant. At a single touch of Aro's palm, he could extract my plan. If it was to work, he must be the very last person to be allowed in.

"I shall decide who sees," Caius said. He flicked a glance round to Heidi and Renata, who beamed and came forth. Chelsea ushered Carlisle and Esme back against the wall, and amongst the re-shuffle, the grey mist dissolved away.

Jacob was still lying still in his wolf form, awkwardly, where Demetri had been pulled from under him by the tall but now smashed glass windows. Could he hear me? Did he even know what we were about to do? Tears surfaced quite unexpectedly and I wiped my face with my sleeve before returning my attentions to the Volturi coven who had assembled in the center of the room.

Caius thrust his hand outwards towards me. Aro then Marcus did the same, followed by Heidi and Renata. Five; the same as last time.

"Wait for me," Demetri said. He leapt over to my side. "I've never seen what the half-blood can do," he mocked.

How I hated him.

"Here goes," I said, reaching out with only one hand to Heidi's. The others' hands lingered closely by hers but no one elses touched at first. Everybody seemed quite perturbed by Aro's power and it showed by the reluctance on their faces.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. When I touched their hands, the ripple surged down my arm like a bullet.

"NO," Aro started to scream as the rumbling began. He thrashed his hand away knocking Renata from him and the hands that had all joined for my vision were flung apart.


	62. Chapter 62 - Jacob

Chapter Sixty-Two: Jacob

'_It's a trap!'_ I shouted in my thoughts to anyone who could hear me. At first I wasn't sure if it worked as I was still mid-phase.

'_Jake, you okay?'_ Leah said.

'_We're by the perimeter,'_ said Seth.

'_Hold your position,'_ Sam said, his voice stern. _'Jacob, can you hear me? What's happening?'_

I couldn't really respond as by that point I had collided with Demetri. I pulled the strongest punch that I possibly could and it knocked the wind out of him. _'Filthy bloodsucker!' _It's a shame he didn't rely on breathing as that would have given me a moment to strike again, but he threw an equally hard fist, which sliced the light clean off the ceiling before sending me down with him to the floor.

I tried to push him out of the room. There was no space here. Not enough to really get him. Well, that's what I was thinking anyway, but the Volturi didn't let it get that far. Before I knew what was happening, my body became unresponsive to my demands. It was like I wasn't in control of myself anymore.

'_Jacob, what's happening?' _Jared said._ 'Who's there?'_

'_All of them dammit. The Volturi are here.'_ I said, collapsing on the ground, amid a great black cloud.

'_What?' _Leah said. _'But Ben—.'_

I tried to roll, to move, to smell, nothing seemed to be responding, and the more I tried, the less I could feel. Even my vision was impossibly hard to focus. _'Ben was practically unconscious when I left, things have changed,' _I yelled in my thoughts. _'I'm out. I can't move because of something that piece of shit Alec has done to me, and they've left me here on the floor, exposed. __They're one step ahead of us. Again. How can we have let this happen?'_

'_But we're all here,' _Jared said. _'We're all waiting and ready to go.'_

'_Don't come Jared,' _I said. _'I'm can't help, and if you come close, Alec will get you too, he can do this to any number of people at the same time, rendering them as useless as me. Jane is also here, along with the main three and a few of their henchmen to do the dirty work. Geez, they're going to pick us all off one by one.'_

'_Right, we're coming in Jake,' _Leah said.

'_No,' _both Sam and I said at once.

'_Leah, it's a trap,' _I repeated. _'Sam, before our phone call cut off before, you said Carlisle called and asked you to meet here?'_

'_It was a text, Jake. He never called; he sent me a damn text message!' _He growled.

That's how they knew I was bringing Carlie, it must have been. They could have been with Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie and Emmett all day, keeping them locked in until we arrived.

'_Jake, can you move at all?' _Sam said.

'_No, nothing. I can't even blink, geez, my eyes are itching already.' _I tried to shift round, with no feeling in my legs, apart from the bite, which still throbbed albeit much less. Even my vision was blurred. _'The Cullens are talking, trying to stall them I think but I can't hear so well.' _I filled them in with the situation as best I could. Ten Volturi, five Cullens; no shield, no mind-reader, no powers of persuasion or manipulation - whatever Jasper liked to call his useless gift. No hope.

'_Can we cause a diversion?' _Seth said.

'_And save them when they had no intention of saving us?' _I said, and immediately I felt sick that I'd brought Carlie here. No matter how I felt about Carlisle, Rosalie, Emmett and Esme for abandoning us in our hour of need, I couldn't leave her.

'_Jacob, Carlisle wasn't leaving us,' _Sam said, and this time I detected a little guilt in his voice.

'_What did you do Sam?'_

'_Nothing. Well I spoke with him, which is why I saw no reason to question his text message. He said he wanted to get Carlie out of the way, then he and Emmett were coming back. They were trying to keep her safe. He knew as well as you and I, that she wouldn't go quietly, which is why he was pushing to get her out of town last night!'_

The tall Volturi one with the long hair had a mischievous look in his eye. He was moving forward towards Carlie. Actually it could have been a girl. The more he moved, the blurrier things got.

'_You can't help, I wish you could, but there's nothing that any of you can do.'_

'_Then we'll die trying, Jake, we're not gonna leave you," _Collin said.

'_No,'_ I practically shouted._ 'They're too strong for you. They're too strong for all of us. You'd only just be able to take them on without powers, but there's Alec, and Jane, the one that inflicts those horrendous migraines. I've felt it first-hand, it almost made me sick with the pain. She is one evil bitch. Get your families from wherever they are and get as far away from here as possible, because the minute they're finished with us here, they'll be coming for you next.' _

In my frozen form the grief caused a bubble inside my throat, which felt like it would choke me. I wished so much that I would at least be able to swallow. It's strange how in your last moments you focus in on the little things, but as my dying wish I wanted to blink and swallow just one more time.

Then the sofa moved from in front of me. I saw Carlie push it back, and look at me with such emotion in her eyes. _'Something's happening,'_ I said in my thoughts. The others listened quietly as I reported back how Carlie was coming to meet the bloodsucker Volturi in the middle of the room. What was she doing? How could the other Cullens let her near them on her own? Did they not realize how vulnerable she was? Other Volturi members came forward to meet her, I couldn't tell which. What's going on? I couldn't see everything, and there was not much conversation.

Then everywhere went white.


	63. Chapter 63 - Carlie

Chapter Sixty-Three: Carlie

A cool calm swept upon me. The six incensed faces that had taken such sweet delight in condemning my family, now contorted in a rainbow of trepidation and amazement as their bodies lifted clean off the ground, hovering three feet or so in the air, and then all at once dropping into a well of swirling rubble below. Amongst the disorientation of their bodies, Aro's expression remained firm. The gamble I'd taken had delivered my plan neatly into the palm of his hand, albeit too late. Only ten feet of brickwork now lay between us, and there was plenty to do before he was up.

This time, as the rumbling died down, I ploughed backwards into Carlisle, Rosalie, Esme and Emmett, who had edged their way beneath the open tread stairs. All five of us were out and poised to attack, overlooking the quarry of debris that lay before us.

Alec's echo took me through the cloud of dust and out through one of the house's many gaping wounds. Underfoot the tremors intensified.

"No Carlie, we'll get Jake after," Emmett shouted, spotting my hesitation by the great glass window frames. Of course the glass was now gone. And so, against my better judgment, I sped out into the forest and started burrowing aimlessly into the loose rubble until I felt a limb. It was cold as ice and hard enough to make even the bricks that now decorated the floor seem soft and fluffy. I pulled firmly, dragging him towards me. He kicked sharply setting me back into the trees. It was a strong blow but I bounded back in barely a heartbeat.

I dragged at his body once more, pulling it through thick sheets of debris. He yelped and it was not at all how I expected, almost feminine. I looked down, pulling piles of rubble away from his face. But it wasn't Alec I saw.

It was Renata's stunned face, smeared in dirt.

She squirmed as my eyes locked with hers; an angry gaze, before pulling her lips back over her teeth. I swept at her with all my fury, but she deflected me instantaneously like swatting a fly. Now the panic spread; a mere mortal; her strength and speed far outweighed mine.

"I'm coming," Emmett shouted, not a second too soon. He flew out into the forest brushing loose pieces of plaster off as he ran. His eyebrows were drawn together above furious, determined eyes. He flung himself into Renata knocking her directly towards me.

"Now Nessie," he bellowed, as she landed at my feet.

_What? _I paused and a sly smile spread across her face.

But Emmett was upon her in seconds with a clean sweep. He let her severed corpse fall to the ground before kicking her head off into the trees.

"We'll come back for her later," Emmett said. "Now where is he hiding?"

All around the ground visibly shook.

In the far corner, Carlisle and Rosalie were digging.

"Hurry up," Emmett said. He was already clawing back into the ground, sniffing like a guide dog and throwing huge ornaments and furniture off behind him. I made a start on the decking. It was ruptured and great splinters stuck out like stakes. Then I saw hands protrude between the wooden planks and what was left of the building's outer wall. I took a moment to inhale his scent before Emmett and I raced over. He got there first pulling him from the ground. Then I set upon him while he was coughing up dirt; his blue shirt tattered and stained. The shock and disorientation registered all over his face. He squinted at me, but this time there was no grey swirling mist. He pushed at the ground frantically to put some distance between us.

Behind us I heard sounds of fighting. More would be up by now.

Alec sprung to his feet, flexed his limbs and regained his composure, his eyes darting from side to side. And there I stood, in a kind of standoff; his legs crouched and ready to launch, my hands shaking. Behind me more noises of vampires resurfacing filled the air. Where was Emmett? I flicked a glance back to him but he was already distracted by Aro. So soon.

I took a deep breath and prepared myself to launch towards him, but the timid-little-boy expression seemed to dissolve and a smirk started to grow like Japanese Knotweed across his face. I drew my lips back, squeezed my eyes shut and charged at him, to end this once and for all. That's when the grey swirling mist started to leak from his body, but by that point it was too late. Mid-jump, I fell to the floor in an awkward position on my hip that I tried in vain to shift from. All my senses drained from me in the that instant. I'd only had one advantage over them, and my surprise and any defense was blown away in that second.

"See," Alec said, but it came out muffled, like sound travelling though a sea of water. He strode past me back towards the house.

A blur of figures all danced around ahead of me. The mist that emanated from his languid frame started creeping towards the house as he walked. Then, out of nowhere a wolf launched out of the debris, sweeping into Alec from behind. I could hardly see, but it was definitely canine. Then other wolves came forth out of the shadows, in a great blur aimed at Alec.

He yelped as he was thrown to the ground and the grey mist evaporated instantly. I felt my arms and legs again, and not just the cold, frozen limbs, but I could move, I could smell, I could see.

I jumped to my feet and scurried towards them, to finish off the job I had failed so miserably the first time, but Jane was too quick. All at once the wolves fell to the ground amidst a cloud of howling. Normally Jane could only inflict her pain one at a time. She shrieked with laughter when she realized how effective her seething agony was. All the wolves were down in one fell swoop. Then Alec joined in, picking himself up of the floor from where he'd been thrown, then laughing as the wolves rolled around the floor and his mist consumed us all once more.

By the time Caius had marched towards me, the wolves cries had turned to simpers and then silence as Alec's mist set upon them too. Inside me the grief of a thousand oceans welled up, yet within his anesthetic cloud, not even a tear escaped my frozen eye.

"Now that little trick of yours changes everything," Aro said, striding towards me in my frozen form. "Did you see what she did?" He turned to Caius and Demetri, who also looked animated.

"Maybe we can use her?" Demetri said, turning to the new vampire, who beamed.

Marcus shook his head from afar. "No," he said, tapping his temples. "It is there, far stronger that we had thought. Do you not agree Aro?"

Marcus didn't have a power that I was aware of, and it confused me when he held his hands out towards me, and then nodded, glancing somewhere behind me to where the wolves lay.

"You're right. We finish this now," Aro said.

"No," Demetri cut in. "This is something else."

From where I stood, mid stride, frozen, I couldn't see Jake's face, just a blurred outline of those still around me. All at once, Demetri lifted me, swinging me over his shoulder, with a cold, hard grip. I loosened from Alec's mist as soon as I was in his grasp. "Come on Romaro, you have your work cut out," he said. The new vampire sneered and leapt through the rubble to us. "We can work with this," Demetri added. His arms clamped me tightly around the back of my legs. I started thrashing against his chest with my shins and feet, anything to slow him down.

"Jake!" I screamed, suddenly able to use my voice, as Demetri strode farther away from the others. But they lay dormant, sprawled on the floor or mid-stride around the battlefield I'd known as my garden.

We took the stairs down into the garage. Demetri walked straight up to our secure metal box, which hung on the wall, and punched his hand straight through the steel casing.

"Mercedes? Don't mind if I do," he said, snatching Carlisle's spare set of keys. He threw the rest of the key box over his shoulder where it ricocheted off the wall with a loud chime.

"Get in," Demetri said, forcing me in the back door. Romaro came in after me, and together we waited in the blackness as the garage doors opened. Aro, Marcus and Caius were waiting on the driveway as we pulled out of the garage, crossing our exit.

"You're right Demetri," Marcus started. "We do need the girl for a little longer, but not like this. I've seen it. Her gift is not stable."

"Only one way to find out," Demetri said, through the driver's window. "Get in."

Marcus frowned at him, then shared a dubious glance with Caius and Aro, who for some reason looked quite unprepared to contest Demetri.

"I'll go," Aro said. "Follow us with Jane, and get Alec, Chelsea and Heidi to finish off the others. Where is Renata?"

"No," I screamed, and jumped at the door handle, which was locked. I beat at the window, shattering it into tiny pieces.

Romaro was upon me at once. "Settle down," he said in a foreign accent, his tone harsh.

"What have they ever done to you?" I screamed, thrashing against Romaro's arms.

"It's not them, love," Demetri said, smiling into the rear view mirror. "It's you."

"What an enormous effort over one little girl," Marcus added dryly, turning to walk away. Aro jumped into the front seat and pressed his lock button too.

"Noo," I sobbed, tightly bound in Romaro's grip, as we sped away.


	64. Chapter 64 - Jacob

Chapter Sixty-Four: Jacob

Carlie's last screams shook me so violently that I thought I would be sick; not that Alec's grey mist would allow for a maneuver as simple as puking. Even dull, her desperation had stabbed me and was writhing away inside, and I couldn't do a damn thing to help. Instead I lay, like the others around, stationary and exposed, like bowling pins, ready to be picked off one by one and thrown down as they pleased.

'_You're wrong Jake,'_ Seth said, in his thoughts.

'_What are you talking about?' _I replied, sourly.

'_It's not your fault. They wouldn't come all this way for a vendetta of Demetri's. There has to be more to it than that.'_

It made no difference, the guilt for Carlie's impending death and now everyone else that lay here paralyzed like me was almost more than I could bear.

'_Seth's right,' _Sam added. 'This isn't just about you. There must be something else.'

'_Like an opportunity too good to miss with the good vamps being out of town?' _Jared said.

'_Nah, I don't think this is just an opportunity,'_ Sam said.

'_Wait, what are they doing? They're on the move,'_ Leah said. _"I can't decipher their voices?"_

I was closest to them, and up ahead the three remaining bloodsuckers had come together with various body parts from the only vampire that the Cullens had managed to kill. Well actually she wasn't dead, because her body wasn't burned, and the others were doing a pretty good job of joining the limbs back to the torso. Why hadn't Alec just died when I'd rammed into him at a hundred miles an hour.

When the one they'd ripped apart was totally intact, she started to talk with the others, conversing almost silently in a tight group. Alec was speaking less and concentrating on keeping all of us under wraps in his great storm-cloud. The three women seemed in agreement over something, but I couldn't tell what.

'_Hold up, it's happening,' _I said, feeling the trepidation engulf me.

It was the newly re-formed one who started in our direction.

'_We tried,' _Sam said, in his thoughts, sounding as utterly defeated as I felt. '_Listen up, everyone. I want you to know that what we've done these past ten years or so has saved the lives of everyone we know, and probably hundreds of those that we could never know. It's because of us that thousands of people have a mother, a father, children, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, and we need to hold that close to us when it's time. It's been an honor to know you all.'_

'_So that's it, Sam, it's been an honor?' _Leah said, her thoughts charged. '_We're giving up?'_

'_What else can we do?'_ Jared said. _'She's coming to me!' _He yelled.

The newly re-formed body of Renata walked up to him, then stepped over and carried on towards where the Cullens were frozen. She disappeared from my vision, and moments later I heard a dull cracking sound.

'_We can't do anything,' _Sam said, desperately. _'So, we can at least say our goodbyes, and Leah… for what it's worth… I'm really sorry… for everything.'_

No one said a thing, not even Leah.

Another crack. The sickening feeling just got worse.


	65. Chapter 65 - Carlie

Chapter Sixty-Five: Carlie

"Try it now, Romaro," Demetri said, his tone incensed with a thick and desperate craving. It had been less than a minute since we'd left the house and already we'd crossed the low bridge closing in towards Forks, hurtling along the narrow lanes at seventy or eighty miles an hour.

"What, in the car?" Romaro replied, with his arms still wrapped firmly around mine in a less than comfortable hold.

Demetri pulled the wheel violently to the right, taking us quite unnecessarily into the curb then up the small embankment. He was out of the car and round by my door before it had fully stopped, yanking me out by my arm.

"Ow," I yelped, and his strength pressed into my arm right down to the bone.

There was a small children's playground to the side of the road, surrounded by a simple picket fence and a handful of deserted benches. Demetri dragged me by my wrist until we were level with a large curling slide in the center.

"Romaro, try it now." Demetri stood, eyebrows raised. "Try and sink that," he said to me, pointing towards the slide.

"Go to hell," I shouted.

He threw me into Romaro's chest, which was as hard as a steel drum. "Help her, Romaro."

"No," I screamed, trying to shake him off, but he held firm.

Romaro took my hand in his. "Concentrate young one," he said, smiling. Up close his hairline was a pronounced 'v' in the center of his forehead, with thick black hair that was oiled flat, like Dracula. He closed his eyes, and twisted his lips for a few moments, all the while, the build up of images started to unfurl. Cold, dark emotions ran savagely through my arm.

"Now, Romaro, now," Demetri yelled.

The light was not white this time, but a dark, bruised stone grey that shot out high above us, and brought with it a violent rumbling that caused the ground to shake. Then it settled.

Aro jumped from the car and pushed past Demetri to stand before me. "Like Marcus said. It's unstable, she's unstable," he said. "We're wasting our time. Let's just finish her off. Then at least we are not at risk."

"Don't you see, Aro," Demetri said, "this gift builds power. Imagine what we could do? The shaman will be able to harness her energy into his spells. She is the catalyst."

"Of course she is the catalyst," Caius said, approaching from the side of the road with Marcus and Jane. They must have run the short stretch from the house, as no car was present by the roadside or on the embankment, and I certainly hadn't heard them approach. "That's the whole point. We need to halt this now. No good can come from her. The prophecy talks of the catalyst and the curse. Now take the catalyst out and there can be no curse."

Was this the prophecy that Nahuel spoke of?

"So, why don't we just take the wolf out, and keep her?" Demetri shot back. "Then her threat is only limited… and controllable."

Aro raised his eyesbrows at Demetri. What did a wolf have to do with any of this?

"Just try one more time, Romaro," Demetri said. "Here, I'll join in if it's more people you need to channel through – isn't that how this trick works?" He sneered at me.

I jolted left and right but couldn't so much as move a muscle from Romaro's cold, marble-hard fingers.

"Do you want me to offer Renesmee some gentle encouragement," Jane said, drawing her hands to her temples.

"Well, let's see if she needs it first," Demetri replied, forcing his hand upon mine. "First come and hold on. There were six of us last time. Maybe we should try the same number again? Although with Romaro we shouldn't need as many."

Caius, Marcus and Aro didn't advance forward. Even Jane seemed perturbed.

"Come on, what are you waiting for?" Demetri said, exasperated.

Jane stepped forward, dubiously and put her hand out to Romaro's, which was on top of mine. She was waif thin, and didn't look a day over twelve. Again Romaro closed his eyes, his hair didn't move an inch in the steady breeze. The charged emotions brewed again quite against my control. I tried to counter them, but Romaro's gift was strong. Whatever power he possessed compounded my emotions, amplifying them beyond all bounds. This time the light was raging red and shot out with far more pressure that before in a neat bolt. Aro dodged to miss it, and it soared past him into the trees, with a colossal explosion.

Marcus sighed. "We're wasting time. I've got fireworks with more precision. You could hardly bring her into battle and start firing those great things aimlessly."

"Demetri, what is it you are looking for?" Aro said, calmly. Behind him glowing flames started to flicker through the foliage. "Would you really risk your immortality to keep her alive?"

"But we can't kill her yet, anyway," Demetri said.

"And why is that?" Cauis said, confounded. He shared an uncertain glance with Aro.

"Because I'm assuming that Felix won't be able to carry out his task," Demetri said.

"Like we ever expected him to," Jane muttered.

Demetri moved forward facing all of the others. Behind him the trees that were hit by my explosion had culled into small flames. "And if they're still alive, then at some point in the future we'll have an even bigger battle on our hands, one in which we'll need leverage for," Demetri said. "Do you not think they will avenge her death?"

Marcus rolled his eyes. "By the time we've finished, they're going to think the wolves did it," he said. "You set it up well Demetri, give yourself some credit, and lets get on with it. Your time is up." He spoke like he'd expire if he stayed away from Volterra any longer.

Demetri shook his head. "But what about if they don't? I'm betting this little off spawn can penetrate that intolerable shield of her mothers, like nettles and doc leaves, they always harvest together. We've just bought ourselves a secret weapon." A cold chill ran the length of my spine.

"One that you can't seem to harness," Marcus added, dryly. "This isn't what we came for. Our role here was supposed to be to fend off any future threats, not to cultivate an army. That's what we have you for Demetri."

Aro glanced at Caius and Demetri, each of them brandishing a different and bemused expression. The burning leaves behind them had now spread along the fringe of the street, with flames that licked at the tree-tops and up toward the telephone cables. They'd noticed it too. The fire clearly unnerved them, yet no one moved to do anything about it.

"Jane, go and get the shaman and take him to the wolf," Demetri said. 'Then we can keep the girl."

Caius, Aro and Marcus shared another loaded glance. "No one leaves here," Caius said, asserting authority over Demetri for the first time. "We kill her first then go back and see how Heidi, Chelsea, and Alec are doing with the others. The shaman will need to kill the alpha to cut off the spirit line. Then the remaining bodies will need to be placed strategically. No deviations Demetri."

The alpha. Jacob?

"Yes, they will leave, Caius, because I say so," Demetri shouted. "Jane, go" He nodded towards her. The encroaching flames now gave off a wall of heat, and long, thick smoke plumes that stretched up into the sky.

"Do not forget your place, Demetri," Aro warned, stepping forward, over the base of the slide.

Jane and Romaro looked from Demetri to Aro, caught between the two.

"If you won't do it, then I will," Aro shouted, charging towards me at full pelt. I screamed. Romaro knocked me to the ground, instantly, falling over me to deflect Aro away.

"Get away from her," a southern voice echoed from the road.

Both Aro and Romaro, who had looked set to duel one another, now looked up in confusion from their fallen positions. The others did too. Caius, Marcus, Demetri and Jane, all turned, aghast, to the stranger in their midst.

"That is my granddaughter you are holding," a hoarse voice said, followed by the click of a rifle as its ammunition fell into place. "And I'm not planning on letting you lay one more finger on that girl's body."

Caius started laughing. Then the others did too. "And who are these humans?" He said.

Marcus and Aro jumped from the tarmacked area of the playground onto the grassy verge where Charlie and Ben were standing. They too started laughing.

"That one is just a boy," Marcus said in wonder, inspecting him at point blank range.

"Ben," I whispered, dismayed. By coming to save me, they'd just committed themselves to an imminent, horrendous death.

"You don't need to do this, she's not the one," Ben shouted from his elevated position on the verge. Beside him Charlie clung to his gun, looking upon the scene with candid horror. Up till now he'd only known about the wolves, or so I'd hoped. "They're not your enemies. It's not them you are after," Ben continued, his voice shaky. He stood frozen by his car, which was abandoned by the Mercedes, jutting out halfway into the road.

"And how would you know?" Caius shouted over, struggling to hide his amusement.

"Because I've seen it. I know what will happen if you continue," Ben replied. "This has repercussions for all the other vampires too."

Charlie's eyes enlarged out of all proportion, and he raised his gun across his chest.

"Interesting gift for a human," Aro said, his eyebrows raised. "We could do with one of those on our team, couldn't we, Demetri?"

"And tell me, human, how do you foresee this ending?" Aro shouted out. "Because I don't need to see the future to know what's going to happen to you," he mocked.

Ben looked at him, then over to my horrified face. He struggled to conceal the latent anguish within his bulging eyes. "If you let them go, I shall help you find the one you are looking for," Ben continued, edging slowly in my direction. Charlie lifted his gun up at them as he too moved over.

"I don't believe you," Demetri said. "Prove it."

Ben didn't flinch. "You've come here because you think the prophecy is true," he started, still inching his way towards me. "You think that Renesmee and Jacob have some kind of power that will wipe you all out. But they don't."

"It's between a half-blood male and a shaman," I shouted. All eyes turned.

"What do you know of this?" Caius lurched forward, his black cloak flying out behind him.

"She's knows that with her it won't work," Ben continued, looking at me now with a twinkle in his eye. "She knows that if she and Jacob were to come together, they couldn't harness enough energy to send you into those trees, let alone into oblivion." The trees he pointed to were now a mass of raging flames, slowly encroaching out towards us. "So let's not make enemies for nothing," Ben continued. "You seem like decent enough people. Why don't you let her go with her grandfather here, and I will come with you and help you destroy the adversaries that you seek."

"No Ben," I said.

Then, with a huge crack, a pole of burning fire came crashing down, bringing with it a line of telephone wires, which sparked when they hit they floor. They too burst into flames creating a division across the road.

Marcus, Caius and Aro came together in the center of the grass; eyebrows raised, and chins dipped. Their conversation was garbled from where I stood, in the lowest undertones I have ever witnessed. With all the commotion, Romaro had moved off me, fascinated by Ben and Charlie and their idiocy in turning up. Then Aro turned, his brows knitted closely and a great rage overtook his calm expression.

"Ben, look out!" I screamed as Aro suddenly leapt towards him, teeth bared. I started to run.

Charlie's gun was already lifted, and he pulled the trigger instantly. The bullet shot out with a sharp, throaty bang. Perhaps, with Aro's speed, I'd expected it to miss, but it hit him square in the middle of his chest, with a loud pop. Aro landed on his feet and ripped the front of his shirt open to reveal several six-inch cracks emanating from a central dent in his chest.

"You will pay for that!" he yelled, jumping through the swings into the air towards Charlie, but I was closer, ploughing into them with both arms spread.

"Hold tight," I shrieked, lifting them both off the ground under each arm and springing up. In terms of their weight, I could take them no problem, but I didn't have such a good grip. "Wooah," I said, bouncing off the ground, towards the burning trees. "Hold tight," I said, attempting the biggest jump I'd even done. We cleared the first few branches before I started to feel the heat. "No," I yelped, trying to maneuver us, but the power in my spring was waning, and we started to fall down into the fiery trees.

"Argh," Ben yelled.

We hit spikes and branches that snapped and fell around us as we came to the ground. I landed first, with Charlie and Ben coming in on either side of me, crushing my arms as they did.

Charlie didn't speak, coughing profusely.

"I can't see," Ben whispered. He too was struggling to breathe. "It's stinging my eyes, argh."

I tried to pull them both up, engulfed by the smoke. "We can't stay here," I said, urging them along. "Maybe try and crawl?"

"It's no good, Carlie," Charlie said. "The fire is everywhere."

I dropped Ben's arm, and grabbed Charlie with both arms around his chest. "No, come on Charlie, we need to move."

He slumped to the floor.

I tried to get a firm hold of him to launch us out of there - if in fact I could jump us high enough to escape it - but I could only take one of them, and even then I had no confidence that I could get him out alive.

"Go," Ben whispered beside me as if reading my thoughts. His eyes were mostly shut, but through the thin slits he was looking at me, through the thick smoke. He was shaking his head from side to side. "Go," he said again. "It's your only chance, but don't forget what I told the others. You know what to do."

He slumped over, his eyes rolling back, and his chest pumped out in large contortions. I wanted to scream out, but I couldn't. I had to save at least one of them.

"Go," a more aggressive voice said, from beside me. I hadn't heard anyone else approach, and nearly lashed out at the sight. "Go," Felix said again.

Felix.

He was beside me, with two arms around Ben. The most unusual and unexpected sight I'd ever seen.

"I'll help you," he said, and without question I nodded willingly; too desperate to even think straight. I pushed off into the dark cloud, with Charlie in tow, and rocketed out of the burning trees.

I landed on a familiar path, not far from the playground, which was now deserted. Felix was close by, with Ben hanging limply in his arms. The look he gave me wasn't fuelled with the menace I had experienced all those years ago.

"I'll take them to hospital," he said to me, gesturing to Charlie who was unconscious in my arms. I looked up to Felix's tall, foreboding frame, and for a moment, had no idea what to do. Should I run from him? Or trust him with my family? With Alice's family? He scooped Charlie under his other arm; both bodies now limp, unresponsive and painfully pale.

"They're going for the wolf," he said, calmly, then turned and sprinted off in the direction of Forks town center with Ben and Charlie. Even if I had suspected Felix would double-cross the Volturi, I couldn't contain the panic that rose in my throat. 'They're going for the wolf.' Jacob. The alpha. That's what Demetri had wanted to do all along, to kill Jacob, so he could keep me, like a pet hand grenade, ready to throw at any who dared him.

I started to race along the footpath back in the direction of the house then cut off into the thick of the woods. Behind me the sound of sirens started to whirr, but there were no noises up ahead. Why would there be? I'd left the wolves and Carlisle, Rosalie, Emmett and Esme trapped within Alec's web. They couldn't move, let alone scream. I raced on, cutting up the undergrowth in a fit of hysteria beneath my dashing feet. So much time had passed; the Volturi could have killed them all by now.

It wasn't until I drew closer that I heard the chanting; long reams of fluid verse, sung in a low, flat tone.

I slowed at the silver birches, then started edging my way towards the remains of the house, keeping light on my toes to limit my sound. Then I found them. The chanting was coming from an aged man. Long white hair flowed from his face and head, framed by hundreds of tiny wrinkles puckered around his eyes, nose and ears. He held his arms high in the air, over Jacob's lifeless wolf body. Around him the other bodies lay scattered. I couldn't tell if they were alive or not. The well of emotion started to pour from me once more, overcoming me with grief.

Do I run in now? That would just deliver me back to them. If only I could find a way to take out Alec, then Jane, and then the Shaman, but there were too many of them, far too many.

That's when I felt the hand clamp around my leg.

It was marble hard, with a grip that bordered on crushing. Demetri. His scent betrayed him. He spun me round, smiling; flashing his canines, then drew me tightly into his grasp.

"Shuuh," he said quietly, forcing a hand over my mouth as I tried to scream.

He started to drag me backwards into the forest. I kicked my legs but it wasn't anywhere near enough to distract the others let alone get away. If Jake could even see me, there was nothing he could do to help. I sent visions, anything I could think of - of my parents, of my family, of Jacob – to try to create that white light again, but without enough energy to feed my power, I was nothing.

"You put up more of a fight than Nahuel," Demetri taunted, as he squeezed his other hand around my neck.

"Let her go," I heard from the depths of the forest. It wasn't from the house or its surroundings but from the trees. "I won't ask again," the voice rung out in the forest. Clear, crisp, concise. I could recognize his voice a mile away.

"Dad!" I screamed.


	66. Chapter 66 - Jacob

Chapter Sixty-Six: Jacob

'_Carlie!'_

Her screams came out muffled under that pig's cold, hard grip, and there was not a thing I could do to save her. Heidi, this little rat of a vampire had been twisting at my fur and stabbing anything she could find into the bite wound and now this old man had appeared and was conjuring wolf spirit spells over my head. But I couldn't think of witchcraft anymore. Carlie was alive, and somehow I had to save her.

Then she screamed for her father. For a moment I imagined that Edward was really here and that he had come to save us all. Maybe I was delirious now, which meant the venom had reached my brain, and was slowly eating away at my sanity. Or just that I couldn't hear much anymore. Alec's mist clouded even my expert sense of smell.

"Be careful, Edward," Demetri shouted into the forest. I could hear him! This came as a surprise. How I wished to twist round for a better view. "I have your daughter and she's not immortal," he continued, from the trees, in a loud enough voice. I strained to hear more.

"And I can see your future." It sounded like Alice. She was alive! Which meant Heidi had lied earlier when she said she'd ripped her heart out. A new flame started to kindle within me. Carlie's screams had attracted the attention of Marcus, Aro and Demetri who were squinting into the forest in total bewilderment.

"Surprise," Alice said, coming out of the trees where they shadowed the river. She wandered with no urgency towards Demetri, while this guy was still singing songs over me. Demetri held Carlie dangerously close to him with his murderous arms wrapped around her tiny frame. How I wished I could bound over and prize his evil fingers off her.

Demetri was jumpy, and that pleased me.

"Oh, another psychic," Demetri said to Alice, although my view of her was not great. The others however were closer, or was it that Alec's power was waining. I definitely hadn't been able to see the far trees before, and now they were sharp. "Isn't this getting a little boring?" Demetri continued.

"Oh, but the fun has only just started. Guess what, Demetri," Alice said, with her eyebrows arched. "You don't win."

"Oh, is that right!" He spat; morsels of venom fizzed on the rock below. My sight was definitely improving.

"_Guys, I think our senses our coming back?" _I said.

"_Not mine Jake,"_ Leah said, and then I felt a dark thought wash over me. It was the shaman. Whatever he was doing was affecting my body and my senses. I tried to move but still struggled with something as little as lifting a paw an inch off the ground.

I relayed what I was seeing to the others, who weren't even aware of Alice or Edward's arrival.

Demetri was creeping backwards in our direction, with Carlie firmly in his grasp. Aro, Marcus and Caius were close by, but merely observing. Then Edward spoke from a different direction. "Over here." It startled Demetri, he spun round again, this time his breath quickened – I could hear it - and his eyes darted from side to side, searching for Edward in the darkness of the trees.

"Boo," Alice said from his other side. She was less than two feet away. Demetri jumped several paces back with Carlie in tow, struggling to see over her thick and now messy hair. How I wished I could jump in and save her.

"Do you want to know how you die, Demetri?" Alice said, taunting him as she approached. Now he looked visibly panicked. "It's not pretty. First it's your arms that go. They pop out of your sockets so quickly that you're left waving your shoulders around aimlessly." She advanced even closer.

"I can see Bella's shield twinkling over Alice. She's here. They're all here!" I shrieked to the others in my mind, walking them through the events that were still clouded to them.

"Then it's your spine, Demetri, Alice continued. "It twists into a half moon paralyzing you for the first few moments, then causing you to seethe in agony as your body tries to repair itself. But this won't kill you." She stood before them under the canopy of trees. "What'll really do the damage is when we rip off your head." She smiled as she spoke. "But don't worry." She feigned concern. "That bit's not painful. It'll be so quick that you don't see it coming… see, we always try to be humane."

Demetri pulled Carlie back less than two feet from me. She dragged her feet through the dirt and tried to struggle.

"Dad!" she screamed. How I wished I could move. Above me the witchdoctor now stopped, and my senses started to dull again. No!

"Jane," Demetri yelled over, now it echoed in my ears. Edward came into view blurry through the trees. It caused Demetri to twist direction, again, edging away from him at an angle.

"Oh no you don't," Edward said. He sprung towards Carlie, but Demetri was quicker, launching both him and Carlie back over me to the Volturi crew. Already I could see a twinkling glaze moving over some of the wolves. As soon as it touched them, Alec's force-field dispersed and set them free.

"Jane, now," Demetri shrieked, visibly alarmed. Jane narrowed her eyes at Edward, but he didn't flinch. Then she stamped her foot. Ha. Her power wouldn't work on Edward because he was under the protection of Bella's force field.

Bella and Jasper ran out of the shadows, carving a line of protection as they went in a long bubble over us. Finally I could move! I started limping towards the other wolves, the pain in my leg now crippling, but everything else slowly returning to normal. Then Bella turned towards Carlisle who was still frozen further towards the house. A small orange-tinged effervescent ball appeared from her fingertips and she threw it through the air towards him. The ball started to expand and then flattened like a net over him. Now he too glowed under Bella's protection and came free. I'd never seen her do anything like it before. Then the shield started moving towards Carlie, still wrapped up in Demetri's hold.

'_Right, she's bringing Demetri into the field,' _I said in my thoughts to the wolves around. 'The minute Carlie's in we need to launch at him because he'll still be able to harm her when they're in the bubble. Within the forcefield he can attack any one of us."

'_Standing by,' _Sam said.

'_Don't worry, Jake,' _Leah added. _'We're all here to protect her.'_

Carlie began to visibly shake. "No, Mom," she shrieked as Bella's shield drew closer to her. "It's too dangerous to bring him in too."

"Ah but we have the girl," Caius said, breaking the long, drawn out silence that had engulfed them.

Edward's expression shifted. "You leave her alone," he said. "She's not a bargaining tool."

"Just finish her off, Demetri," Aro ordered. "Let's end what we came here to do."

Demetri smirked and pushed his teeth into her neck. The other members of the Volturi started to pull closer together, watching with intrigue.

"You can't feed off her," Caius said, striding forward. When he got closer, he too pulled his teeth out. "Or maybe you can."

"No," Carlie sobbed, great bulbous tears slid down her face.

"Nessie, no," Bella shrieked. "Get away from her," she continued, marching towards Carlie, pulling her bubble force field along like an invisible cape. This time Carlie shrieked and I swear I felt my heart stop pumping. A tear of blood tricked down her neck, and she cried out. I lurched forward.

'_No, Jacob,'_ Sam yelled. _'She's not in the force-field. Out there you are dead!'_

'_They're killing her, Sam,'_ I yelled, running towards her. Carlie panicked and started kicking again, this time more desperately.

"See Aro, it is possible," Demetri said, with her blood on his teeth. "But it's disgusting." He looked directly at Bella then spat her blood to the floor. I howled and broke free of the force-field. As soon as I leapt out, Jane's head power captured me again, but not before my paws landed square into the front of Demetri's left shoulder. It loosened his hold for a moment, and Carlie stabbed him in the chest with her elbow. He faltered momentarily and she was free.

"Come on Jake," she yelled, pulling me, spluttering with the pain into the force-field. I collapsed dizzy with the agony. Then Carlie pulled me behind her until we were back within Bella's bubble, and the seething pain stopped. Carlie held my face firmly in her hands, as I threatened to phase back in the wake of Jane's agony.

Behind me, Demetri let out a shriek. Then he started wiping his mouth in horror. "Argh," he yelped, again, falling to the floor. Then he started retching. He ran his hands over his teeth then screamed as if something was biting at him. It was unclear in the dusk but it seemed as if the sharp fang ends of his teeth were eroding away.

It distracted Aro too.

"It's her blood," Demetri shrieked, pointing at Carlie. He started spitting into the ground, then convulsing and retching violently again. "It's poison." He backed away from us into the trees, while the others stared in horror. No one moved. They looked from Demetri to us, safe in our cocoon of protection. Then slowly they started to back away.

"Don't even think about it, Caius," Edward said, breaking the silence. "You've got ten angry wolves, a lot more vampires here and no where to run."

The fiery pupils in Caius's eyes enlarged in fury. He looked to Jane. Her glowing red eyes were narrowed at us.

Edward continued, unperturbed. "And don't worry Jane. We've found a way to give you a taste of your own medicine." A wry smile broke through his tightly knotted face, as an unfamiliar male vampire stepped forward from out of the shadows. He was dressed like a tribal warrior, with enormous muscles and far too much skin on show. For a second Jane looked confused. Then her shrill scream ripped into the air. She collapsed on the floor, convulsing in agony; the same pain she took so much delight inflicting on others. This is the vampire Carlie had told me about. Cruz. Pretty neat power.

Not one of the Volturi moved, not to help her, nor to stop the new vampire. They were simply astonished. Aro looked from Jane who was crying in pain on the floor, back to the new vamp; his concentration staunch.

"See how it feels, Jane," Rosalie said, gloating at her misery. She took Emmett's hand in hers.

From behind her, a long, lean female body came into view.

"Zafrina," Aro cooed, pretending to ignore Jane and the power that this new guy posed. "Why, we didn't know you would be here." He shot a dark glance at Marcus. In the background, Jane's screams ensued. Everyone watched her child-like body squirm and thrash about, and I for one was enjoying it.

Zafrina snarled at him.

"And to what do we owe this honor?" Aro continued, unperturbed.

A smile spread across Carlisle's face. "Now you want to talk?" He said. In the background Jane's cries turned to whimpers. New guy must have backed off.

Zafrina was far more serious. "Too long we have lived under the dictatorship of your rule, Aro. Too long have we hidden in fear..." Behind her a string of equally under-dressed vampires - presumably their army from the Amazon - appeared and started to line up in neat formation. "But this time you crossed the line."

Aro looked back at her defiantly.

"You all have," she added, her voice much louder now. "You really think you can bully people into cooperating with you? You think it's okay to pick and choose which of us lives and dies just because you feel like it? Did you think it would go unnoticed when you killed Nahuel?"

She was smart enough to piece the real story together, when all the while everyone back home was busy blaming me.

"So tell me, Aro," Zafrina continued, "what was it this time? What did Nahuel ever do to you?"

Aro looked at her with narrowed eyes but said nothing.

"If he won't speak, will you translate, Edward?" She said.

He smiled and looked hard at Aro. "The prophecy," Edward said, his tone serious. I tried to catch his eye but he cocked his head slightly toward Aro as if trying to hear more. "We've misinterpreted it completely," he muttered. "How do you know this?" He shouted at Aro.

'_Nahuel told Carlie about a prophecy that would take out the Volturi,' _I translated for the wolves.

'_Shame they got to him then Jake,'_ Quil said. _'We could have done with a prophecy ourselves.'_

"Can you hear the prophecy in their thoughts, Edward?" Carlisle said.

He went quiet for a moment, his eyes darting back and forth from Aro, to Demetri, Caius and Marcus but to my complete surprise, it was Felix who stepped forward; a vampire that had not even been present here tonight.

"One by thirst and one by curse," he started.

"When the two come together,

Dark one with the beating heart,

Endeth underlife forever."

"You!" Aro started, pointing his finger at the speaking vampire; Felix.

"Shut up you fool," Marcus snapped, losing his temper for the first time, to the amusement of the wolves who I could hear chuckling in my head. "You've already done enough damage today. We set you one task and you failed miserably at that. You said you would keep them in the Amazon!"

Felix sneered, and then shook his head. "I lied." He glanced at Edward, who nodded, then to Jane, and then he ran. I barely caught the tail end of his feet as he disappeared in a whirlwind around the remains of the house. Jane didn't set her power on him. She was too speechless to move.

"We've got it wrong," Edward said after a moment, sharing an uncertain glace with me. "The one with the curse... they think it's a wolf?"

"They think Jacob and I can bring down the Volturi?" Carlie said, taking my paw in her hand. "And I think they're right," she whispered.

Edward looked perplexed. He shook his head and turned to face Alice.

'_Is it possible?'_ I said, in my thoughts.

The wolves all peered at me. What did they think I was capable of? Well Carlie could blow things up with her visions, it seemed, but I'd never done anything like that. Apart from the time in my truck when I'd somehow interfered with her visions.

'_The imprinting does connect the two of you deeper than you think,'_ Quil said.

'_And you managed to tap into her power once before,'_ Sam added, now nodding at me.

"So everything you told us about Nahuel being a fugitive was nonsense, Marcus?" Carlisle said. "You went for him and now for all of us because of some prophecy, which is vague at best, and at worst could be a complete lie. Who came up with it?"

Everyone turned towards the old man with the white beard. "They made me!" He said, throwing his hands in the air. "They killed my whole family. They have Moira."

Aro ducked his head. Beside him Caius looked disgusted.

"You would put our whole civilization at risk?" Caius said forcefully, gesturing towards Seth, who was the closest of the wolves. "It goes against everything we are to be with one of them."

'_Bloodsucker!'_ I screamed in my thoughts.

"But you weren't sure?" Carlisle said.

"You sent Felix to the Amazon on a suicide mission, when you weren't sure," Jasper said. "What would you have made these lot do?" He gestured to Chelsea and Jane who were looking nervous. They started to ebb backwards, but no sooner than Jane had taken her first step, she collapsed onto the floor screaming. Chelsea stopped immediately and turned back to face us. The new vampire, Cruz, smiled and stopped punishing Jane, letting her cries once more dissolve into whimpers.

"Even if the prophecy is not true, what do you stand to gain from this friendship?" Caius said. "What next, breeding? A half-vampire half-wolf – do you not understand the dichotomy it poses for our kind?"

Caius' eyes grew wide, and I pondered the many ways I would rip his throat out. "They make a mockery of who we are," he screamed. "Don't you see that? Don't you see their danger?"

'_Right, that's it. I'm going to take him out,' _I yelled.

'_He's only trying to get a reaction, Jake,' _Leah said.

'_Well, I'm about to give him one.'_

"And you thought you'd kill Nahuel too, just to be on the safe side?" Zafrina said. "He wasn't even friends with the wolves."

"Two birds with one stone," Edward said, peering at Demetri who looked a little green. "Demetri framed Jacob, to drive a wedge between us and the wolves. Although he didn't count on us leaving Carlie here, unprotected, that was a bonus. How foolish of us."

'_Yes Edward, how foolish,' _I thought, trying to rescind my thoughts instantly when Edward peered round and glared at me. _'Sorry,'_ I added.

Carlisle stepped forward. "So, you saw an opportunity too good to miss, to simply wipe my whole family out. Erase us all, then move in on the pack, just in case we were to pose you a threat?"

"Or the pack first, whichever caught us most off guard?' Edward said.

The Volturi stayed silent. Cauis and Marcus shared concerned glances. Even Jane looked anxious.

"Well, I'm sorry Aro," Zafrina said, stepping forward, "but that's just not good enough." She turned to Cruz and nodded.

Jane's eyes went wide. "No, not again, please, I'll do anything."

Demetri stood propped up on the side of a tree, hunched slightly. Despite his apparent angst, he still managed a sneer before looking away from her to the floor, where a puddle of rancid blood – Carlie's blood - lay. Its smell oozed around us like manure.

Behind me Zafrina was speaking quietly and quickly in Portuguese to her brood of newborns. When I turned, she was pointing a long, nimble finger in the direction of the Volturi members.

"That is Marcus," she started, singling him out; he was quietly retreating towards the river, a spark of anxiety lit upon his otherwise morose face. Behind her the army of vampires nodded and smiled. Her hand moved over and she named each one. She paused as her eyes floated over them for the last time. Then came the nod that set off the warriors. Instantly, they started their incessant screaming. They stamped their spears ceremoniously then they charged at their prey.

"Romaro now," Marcus shouted, and the new greasy vampire they'd brought stepped forward. I hadn't even seen him fight. The Amazonian warriors took no notice of him and headed straight for Caius, who was closest, the crack on his chest now healed. But Romaro didn't look phased. He drew both his arms into the air and in an instant a shield had grown around the Volturi much the same as Bella's shield around us.

The vampire army bounced into it like a brick wall, bending their spears, and silencing their hollers.

"So, you see, now we have quite the predicament," Caius said, nodding to Romaro, with an impossibly large smile. "We can't harm you because you're protected by Bella's shield, and you can't harm us, because Romaro here, has us protected in his shield. The shield that he channeled from you!" How the hell could he suddenly do that? He was staring at Cruz and smirking.

"I admit that perhaps we acted a bit rash, but given the circumstances, I think it prudent to suggest that we agree to disagree on this occasion," Aro added. "And go our separate ways?"

"What?" Carlisle said. "You expect us to be able to trust you after all this?"

The Volturi started to move in unison, backing away from us to where Marcus was ebbing towards. Romaro swung his hands to the side, and the shield started to move with them.

"Cruz," Zafrina said, and the new Amazonian vampire, brought his hands up in the air, albeit tentatively. It pulled at Romaro's shield. The Volturi's eyes flared with aggression. It started to flicker and buzz, then our shield did too. Bella's eyes flared.

"Jake," Carlie whispered beside me, pulling on my good leg.

I turned and stroked my head against hers.

"Do you think you can send me a vision again?" She said, her eyes large and desperate. The teeth marks on her neck were engorged, but not septic like my leg. "You know, like you did before with the hut in the forest. Only this time, don't just try to show me something, try and feed the emotions too. Get angry."

No. I shook my head. I was done putting Carlie in danger. We could stay in this force-field until the venom turned my brain to mush and my body to vapor for all I cared. The Volturi would never be able to get to her now.

"No, I mean it," she whispered. "This battle's at a stalemate, J. Romaro can't just tap into other people's powers, he amplifies them. Cruz can just reflect powers. Whatever we throw at them will keep getting bounced back harder. We have to do something. And if they think we can bring down this coven, then maybe we can. Ben came to me back there, he was trying to tell me something. Maybe we've been able to this whole entire time?"

'_What does she want you to do, Jake?' _Seth said.

'_I don't know,' _I said.

'_Don't,' _said Leah, suddenly. _'We saw that bolt of lightening that she conjured up earlier. We're talking about pretty powerful stuff here. Whatever she wants you to do, you're not strong enough anymore to try it.'_

And by that she must have meant my bite, which meant they all now knew.

'_Jake,' _Sam said. He was careful not to move. In fact none of them did, and it didn't draw any attention to the fact that we could communicate between ourselves. _'We'll just sit it out here, it's not worth the risk for some stupid made up prophecy that probably is just a lie anyway. Sit tight, and we'll ride it out, then we'll get you some help. There are herbs to treat the venom.'_

'_Yeah right, Sam,'_ I said. _'If there were herbs I would know about them. It's a vampire bite Sam, there is no cure.'_

'_Jacob,' _Leah said, _'You're not a quitter.'_

'_No, I'm not, and that's why I have to try.'_

'_That's not what I meant; going out of this force-field is pure suicide. You barely made it back the last time. I mean it, if you wait it out we'll get you treatment.'_

'_Leah, Sam, there is no treatment. I'm gonna die anyway. What have I got to lose? I would die easier knowing that it wasn't in vain.'_

'_No,' _Leah said.

When I looked up, Edward was watching. He frowned at me, and then turned back to the others with more conversation.

"J," Carlie said again, although I'd already made up my mind. "Remember how you felt that night in the car when you thought the imprinting hadn't worked," she continued. I growled slightly. "Try and get that back. Try and send me your pain."

I nodded slowly.

'_No,'_ Leah said, almost whimpering in her thoughts. Seth, Quil, Jared and Sam joined in, but there really was no other way. Vampire bite or not, this had to end.

Marcus was still edging away. Their force-field still glowing happily around them.

"You ready?" Carlie said to me. I held her gaze, picturing for a moment all the memories that we'd shared coupled with the ones we should have had to look forward to. The ones that had been stolen from me the minute I'd got involved with Demetri. There was a sparkling fire within her pupils. She closed her eyes, and tapped her foot on the floor three times. On the third, we both set off; warp speed. Half a second and we were already nearly upon them. "Not yet," she whispered, although we'd already caught Romaro's attention. Then we left our force-field.

They all looked round, and I braced myself for Jane's brain freeze again, but it didn't come. Their force-field was still up, and none of the Volturi looked set to leave its protection.

Then, once we were nearly upon it, Cruz shrieked, and all at once the Volturi force-field started to buzz. Romaro raised his hands and let out a furious scream as a flash emanated from his hands.

"Now," Carlie shrieked, forcing her hand to my bounding palm. I didn't see Carlie's vision, nor Romaro's flashing light. I was too busy pushing through the blistering pain and sending my own thoughts, in a wave of emotion.

Then everything seemed to slow down. The Volturi guard started to distort like a hazy mist. Their very shapes started to dissolve, like the last dregs of water being sucked through a bath plug with a gurgling sound. No screams as perhaps I would have expected. But then I wasn't screaming, and I too was dissolving. The trees and the brooding skies growing weaker until the color had left them entirely. That's when the bright light came, and I knew without question that the light had come for me.


	67. Chapter 67 - Carlie

Chapter Sixty-Seven: Carlie

It took a long time before I came round the first time. Everything was so white; I thought I had gone to heaven, if such a thing were possible for a being like me. Then the dark crept back bringing with it the shadows of the trees and the cold moonlight glare overhead. It wasn't enough to camouflage the desolate lands I was greeted with, marred by crystals of tree effluence, deep craters and subtle remainders of the house's foundations.

Then I saw the tear escape Leah's canine eye, and realized why.

'Go Leah, we'll search for his body here,' my father had said, and then under a wave of dark emotion, I passed out.

When I came to there were fierce burning flames that climbed up to the sky. It smelt rancid, like a weak version of Nahuel's decomposed blood mixed with gasoline. It wasn't pitch black anymore. Nighttime had left us and the morning's aurora had set in.

Then I thought of Jacob and tears streamed uncontrollably from my eyes. When I'd refocused from the blast, the Volturi were gone, each and every one of them had just vanished in a puff of smoke. My father described it more like dissolving water, which made me think of the wicked witch of the west from The Wizard of Oz, melting away. To be certain, Cruz had his newborns scouring the land for them, but amongst the sheer disbelief and hysteria at finally being free of the mighty Volturi, no one had bothered to mention Jacob.

I dissolved into tears again, this time they flowed endlessly in clean lines down my face. What had I done?

'Don't you see Carlie, you did it,' Emmett had said, before he'd understood why my legs had buckled and I'd fallen to the floor. Eradicating the Volturi meant nothing anymore, because in the blast Jacob's body had disappeared too.

I wouldn't have moved to see the cleanup operation but suddenly Bella's grip changed around me. Her muscles tensed for a split second and although she tried not to show it, I knew they had found something.

There were mountains of rubble around. The same devastating towers of wreckage had regrouped and intensified. Emmett was standing waist-high in a well within a small clearing not far from the river. Beside him a mound of debris partially obscured my view. Jasper jumped in beside him silently. Together they disappeared down into the shaft. Esme stood at the edge holding onto Carlisle's hand. Alice and Edward made their way over. Even Rosalie stopped what she was doing to look on from the side.

It wasn't long before Emmett and Jasper re-emerged. On seeing them Alice swept at the rubble to clear a flat plain. Emmett and Jasper jumped out of the hole. Between them, locked in their grasps was a limp corpse. Emmett hung his head low as he and Jasper laid him down beside Alice and covered his body.

"Jacob," I said. But he didn't flinch. I prized myself from Bella's grasp to take a closer look. I wasn't possible. It couldn't be. My eyes locked on his lifeless face. Something inside urged me not to see him like this but I had to.

I knelt down beside his body. I didn't imagine him to look so cold; his olive glow now soured and dampened. The only flush of color was the dirt-encrusted blood that stained the edges of his face. The smell was almost empty. I bit my lip to stop myself from screaming out loud and broke down over his still lifeless body.

"It's not possible?" I said, through sobs. It was quiet at first then my voice rose louder. "How can this have happened? He was fine!" There was no answer, not that words would have helped. Bella appeared by my side and took hold of my arm. Her face remained calm; in front of me she shielded her emotions well. She gripped me fiercely until the images from my fingers became too much for even her to bear. The others pooled round the body, each paying silent respect.

My emotions tore between the family I had saved and the loved one I had lost. His face a vision of peace in death yet theirs all contorted in angst around me.

"Don't you hear that?" Rosalie said from somewhere behind me. I didn't look up. No one else responded either.

My mind still swam with the experiences we could have shared, for the life we could have lived. We were going to spend eternity together. Now it was all gone.

"I can hear something," Rosalie said again. The noises of the forest didn't concern me. Nor did I care about any unwanted guests. It all dissolved into insignificance. When I thought Jacob had killed Nahuel, my reaction was gut-wrenched. I was so deeply hurt that I wanted to do anything to numb the pain. Now I was just numb. I tried to tune Rosalie's useless prattle out and re-live our last moments in my mind; our last night at Charlie's, hiding from the circus workers in Jacob's hide out in the woods, the kiss we shared at prom.

The others conversed around me. Jasper spoke. Emmett spoke. I heard a female voice, then a male, then I lost all sense of pitch completely. They were merely words, letters, which swirled around the air, of no use to anyone. They didn't make sense anymore, and that was fine, it seemed easier to cope without them complicating my mind. Why did it matter what they said. It wouldn't bring him back.

Then they rose to their feet; eight blurred figures all swirling around in my peripheral vision like portrayals of fast moving cars reduced to mere streaks of bright color by a slow shuttered lens. I didn't want to look up, to face them directly but something urged to me. By the time I raised my mournful head, two of my streaking, colorful figures were kneeling over the body. Carlisle and Edward.

The harsh light seemed to return to my vision very quickly.

"What are you doing?" I said, my voice louder than I anticipated. They ignored me and rolled Jacob's body onto the side. Carlisle had hold of his chest, while Edward moved his limp legs out. "Leave him alone, let him rest in peace," I said.

It was like I wasn't even there. Carlisle rose and disappeared towards the remains of the main house.

"What's happening?" I said, moving closer to Edward. He didn't flinch but waited as Carlisle returned with apparatus in his hands.

"It's no good," Edward said. "We need to get him into a sterile environment. He caught Carlisle's eye and they exchanged some kind of communication. After a pause, Edward nodded at him and they lifted Jacob's body. Rosalie, Jasper, Esme, Emmett and Alice all jumped up, and followed them away.

"Come on," Bella said. "I'll be with you."

My head shook from side to side before I even realized I'd made up my mind.

"Do you want me to stay with you then?" She said, brushing stray curls that were sticking to my wet tear-streaked face. I continued to shake my head and didn't stop until her figure disappeared in the distance beneath the partly decimated doorframe then out of sight.

I lowered myself into the well they'd pulled Jacob's lifeless body from, and amongst the littered rubble I wept more furiously that I had before.


	68. Chapter 68 - Carlie

Chapter Sixty-Eight: Carlie

I dreamt I was in a hospital. My only recollection of such a place was the time I regurgitated blood on the school gym floor. It smelt the same in my dream. Cold, empty and clinical. Cold wasn't in the physical sense of the word. I don't think I could detect the temperature in my dream if I tried. It was cold like the way a teacher looks at a student who's late for class, or the way a man glares at his wife after a fight. It was cold in my dream from its distinct lack of emotion.

In the distance a great booming drum resounded slowly, with a precise rhythm that I'd imagine at a funeral march. It was overlaid with a shorter flicking sound that was higher in pitch, like someone tapping the edge of a wine glass at a wedding before they made their speech. I don't know how I knew this, having never been to either a wedding or a funeral but somehow it seemed to make sense. I imagined the school orchestra turning the corner of the hospital corridor, armed with the instruments that played out in my head.

I looked down at my hospital gown. It was clean enough. I would want to look my best for when they arrived. But there were wires and tubes coming out of my arms. I pulled at them. It would do no good to greet the orchestra with those. I wiggled my toes, watching them move before me. I felt just fine. There was no pain from where I lay. Why was I even here?

I felt a nudge from beside me. Someone must be with me in hospital. Perhaps they had come to visit me? But when I turned my head, the image that looked back startled me beyond all measure. The girl with the bouncing curls and the tear-streaked face on my bedside, was me.

There were voices now. Had someone else arrived? I turned to see the rest of the room but it was bare and yet the drums rolled on in the background.

"Nessie," the voices said.

No one was there. The words came from all around me. It wasn't the voice of the girl that wept uncontrollably by my side. I tried to comfort her; tell her it would be okay, that I would be fine but the words didn't cause so much as a flinch, like she couldn't hear me at all.

Then the voices startled me again, and this time the faces came into view. Huge omnipresent expressions of the ones I loved. There was Bella, then Edward, Carlisle, Alice, Esme, Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett. Their faces huge, suspended in the air, like cotton wool clouds.

The largest one was Bella; she seemed to inflate with larger than life hands that advanced towards me. I tried to move back, sinking further into the bed I lay in. Why would she be coming for me? I was perfectly happy where I was. There was no need to change anything.

"Don't Mom, I'm alright," I said but the hands kept coming. Was she going to smother me? Why did she not leave me alone? I grasped out to the hazy face before me but my hand swept through the air. Whatever she was, there was no substance.

"No," I said, again into the air but this time the hands clamped down on me, holding me down, holding me still.

I screamed as the hands shook me.

"Renesmee, it's me, stop it," Bella said. This time the voice did not echo. It was louder and much more vivid than before. I couldn't see. My head was slumped forward into a cloth of some sort.

"It's okay," she said again. "Everything's going to be okay."

I lifted my head. It lay on a flat, fabric-covered surface that was not hard enough to be a table yet too high to be a bed. The bright daylight hit my eyes forcing them shut again.

"Carlie," another voice said. This time it was my father. "Are you awake? We have something to show you."

I looked up at him, shielding my eyes. His skin glistened and sparkled by the tall glass windows, flaring in front of my eyes.

"Someone wants to say hi," Edward continued. I looked down to the table my head had rested on, in confusion. An olive hand reached out and stroked my cheek, taking me by surprise.

He lay on the hospital bed, propped up by a mass of pillows.

I didn't move out of shock more than anything else and just stared at his warm honey eyes. Behind him a myriad of wires ran up to a machine, which beeped away, slowly, evenly and loudly, like the orchestra in my head.

"J?" I said.


	69. Chapter 69 - Jacob

Chapter Sixty-Nine: Jacob

"Hi," came a croaky, lethargic voice. It was my voice, although I hardly recognized it.

Carlie pushed her fluffy curls back from her face; tear streaked and swollen, and leaned in towards me. I could barely move - the pain in my head was splitting. It took all my strength to wrap my left hand around her cold fingers. She stared at them long and hard before reciprocating my grip. Her face portrayed the same disorientation that I felt.

"It can't be?" She said. "I don't understand?"

I didn't either. My last memories were of Carlie and I triggering that explosion, but something must have gone wrong. I couldn't remember.

"I thought I'd killed you," she whispered, pursing her lips.

"The explosion?" I said.

She nodded, her eyes brimming with tears. "I didn't know it would hurt you. I thought I was using some of your energy, not sapping your life force."

"Is that what you think happened?"

She nodded. "When they found you, you had no injuries, no bleeding, no bruising, no cracked ribs, fractures, breakages of any sort, apart from the... But you just weren't there anymore. Your heart had stopped." A tear rolled down her cheek and her bottom lip started to tremble. "I can't believe you're alive, J. I don't know what I would have done. After all this, if I'd... If you'd gone... If I'd killed you."

"You're so silly."

"No, I'm not. I'm so stupid." She ran her other hand over my forehead and through my hair.

"Well you can't get rid of me that easily," I said, weakly. "I'm not going anywhere."

"You sure had me fooled."

She wiped at the tears but their damp channels still glowed in the sunlight like snail trails across the soft curves of her cheeks.

Then her gaze flicked past me. I struggled to twist round but tubes and wires pulled me back. Edward moved into view from somewhere behind me, a silhouette in front of the window. Bella was by his side with her arm wrapped around him. They moved like they had been hermetically sealed together.

"What happened?" I said, my voice still hoarse.

They smiled at me in unison. "You're gonna be fine, Jake," Bella said. Her face broke into a smile; the kind of smile I wished my mother could have been here to give. I tried to reciprocate but it only exasperated the pain in my jaw so I stopped and emitted a low grunt instead.

Edward was still, but his expression caught me off guard; it was mischievous, almost smug.

"What. Did. You. Do?" I said, cautiously, failing to hide the apprehension in my voice.

"Edward saved your life, Jake," Bella said. She looked up at him admirably.

Carlie squeezed my hand harder. I didn't know how I'd got here; let alone how I'd survived the bang. I flicked an uncertain glance at her but her eyes were unduly fixed on Edward.

"What would have been the worst thing that ever happened to you, Jacob?" Edward asked, through curled lips.

I paused, thinking hard. "Worse than dying?"

His smile broadened. It puzzled me. I couldn't imagine a fate worse than death. Unless… he didn't mean… he couldn't mean... a vampire?

Edward laughed out loud at my thoughts. "Kind of."

What? My blood started to boil, if indeed I had any left. That's why she hadn't heard a heartbeat. _'Is that what the smug grin on your face is?" I thought. I stared at him. 'How can you look at me with that 'it'll teach you right' expression? You think I deserve this, after all I've done?' _I pulled my hand from Carlie's hold clenching it tightly into a ball.

He watched me fume in his typical arrogant poise. Silent scrutiny. Why did he not speak? How could he be so laid back? How could he think I wouldn't care?

"How could you? After all this time? After all I've done!" It vexed my muscles to shriek. I shook at the wires that ran circles around me, pulsating relentlessly into that damn machine. I wanted to jump from the bed and tackle him to the floor right then and there. Had he really turned me into a vampire?

"J?" Carlie whispered.

"Don't Jake," Bella said, more urgently. "Your body's been through a lot."

I tried to feel for something in my hands, my throat, anything to confirm my suspicions. I felt so much weaker than before. Is this really was it was like to be a vampire? They were actually quite feeble really. Hardly the menace I'd once thought. I stifled a laugh at the irony. All these years they'd had me believe they were actually a match for us wolves. And now I had to suffer their inferiority.

"How could you?" I yelled again from the hospital bed.

Edward threw his hands up into the air. "I'm kidding," he said, with amusement dancing all over his face.

What? I sniffed at the air. No elusive blood scent; but the smell of hyacinths from the window ledge was pungent enough to knock my stomach.

"You didn't let me finish," he continued.

'_I'm lying here feeling paralyzed, and you think it's time to play jokes?'_ I closed my eyes and sucked in my breath.

"What's going on?" Carlie yelled. It stopped Edward's laughter abruptly.

"He thinks Edward saved him by turning him," Bella said.

Carlie sucked in her breath. "You didn't?" She uttered in disbelief.

"No, of course I didn't," Edward chuckled, before sobering slightly. "But it was vampire blood that saved him; Carlie's blood, to be precise. Which is what I was trying to say, Jake."

I snapped open my eyes. "But I'm definitely not…?" I looked straight to the bite on my leg but the skin that had blistered and boiled was now flat and smooth.

Bella laughed.

"No of course you're not," Edward said. "Even I can understand your take on that one."

"Then what?" I said.

"It was something I worked out from the scar. See, your leg here." He pointed to the patch above my knee where the prominent bite mark had been.

"You were bitten, Jacob," Bella said, unaware Demetri had done it earlier.

"It wasn't turning you, like I expected," Edward added. "But instead it was breaking down all the blood cells in your body, causing your organs to shut down. Demetri's venom was slowly killing you."

"So we tried something out. We anointed the wound with Carlie's non-venomous blood. At first nothing happened, which I expected, so I added some wandering-spiders venom to the mix, highly potent stuff; and it neutralized the venom and then we used Carlie's blood to heal the wound." He rocked a narrow vial of blood in his hand. "A bit like pouring white wine and salt on a red wine stain."

"That doesn't actually work," I said.

He rolled his eyes.

I should have been more grateful and I sucked in my pride to offer both Edward and Bella my deepest thanks. Then I inspected the leg that had been bitten. How convinced I had been that my time was up, despite my best efforts, I had resigned myself to death, and that was one of my last thoughts as I leapt towards the Volturi. But it wasn't just anger or hatred I sent through to Carlie right at the end. I'd sent her my burning love.

Edward and Bella shrunk out of my view until the door behind clinked shut. My eyes fell to Carlie's face. I tried to smile, although even that small expression I'd taken for granted took all my energy.

"Did we do it?" I said.

"Yep," She smiled. "We threw enough power at them that not even their cinders were left."

I tried to lean over to embrace her but it was just too much. "Argh." Frustrated, I flopped my head back on the pillow. She jumped onto the hospital bed beside me in one fluid motion and nestled her face into my neck.

"I love you, Jacob Black," she whispered into my neck.

It brought a lump back to my throat. "And I love you too, Carlie Cullen," I responded with a smile.

I always had.


	70. Chapter 70 - Carlie

Chapter Seventy: Carlie

I stayed by Jacob's side while his strength returned. Carlisle wanted him close to keep tabs on him but seeing as the house was destroyed, he stayed in the cottage with me.

"I think I'm ready," Jake said, on day four.

I would have pushed him in the fresh air in a wheelchair, but Jacob wouldn't hear of it, not to mention it was virtually impossible to push about in the forest, and so we walked, or hobbled along the flattest path I could find along the short stretch to the river.

"Car, I know you don't want to talk about it."

I squirmed, and because he was leaning on me, it nearly tripped him over. There were many reasons why I didn't want to talk about it; the first being how close the Volturi had brought me to my death, and the second and most important being the guilt that I still carried for nearly delivering Jacob to his.

"I'm sorry," I said.

"And you don't need to keep apologizing all the time. I'm fine. I'm getting my strength back, and then everything will go back to normal."

"I'm sorry," I said, again. "No, I mean I'm sorry for apologizing." I grinned.

He kissed the top of my head. It drew us both to a halt, and he watched my expression carefully. It was both warm, and windy outside, which brought a pleasant river smell to the forest.

"But I don't understand," he said. "Why did Ben and your grandpa Charlie come to help you, when Ben must have known he couldn't help? What did they think they could do to attack them? They're only human."

He raised his hand above his eyes as the sun came out. Perhaps it was to shield my effervescence.

"I don't think they ever intended to attack them. Ben came to tell me about the prophecy."

"And he was prepared to die to tell you?"

"Well, Ben made a deal with Felix – you remember I said he just called him up that night - well it worked. Felix alerted my parents, who agreed not to kill him, and then he came back to save Ben. He saved all our lives."

He looked at me skeptically.

"I don't think he would have been screaming in his sleep back at Charlie's house over anything else," I said. Jake's body weight was now leaning on me slightly. He wasn't as strong as he liked to make out and I pulled him gently, which prompted us to start walking back to the cottage.

We stayed in the lounge through the afternoon. Jake slept for intervals and each time he woke, there was more warmth in his cheeks.

The next day, I took him back to the main house. Although it had been rebuilt, trees still lined the forest floor like an obstacle course. I held Jacob's arm for support as he hobbled along.

"It's okay, I've got him," I said, taking small, careful steps into the lounge. Alice struggled to hold back a giggle as she watched me lower him onto the sofa.

In the hall was the dismantled monitor and a few precarious wires and tubes that they'd used to run tests on Jake immediately after it happened.

"Are you alright, J?" I said, seeing him look at them.

He grimaced, cheeks slightly reddened, forcing a smile.

"You're healing very well," Carlisle said, appearing at the lounge entrance with more boxes of apparatus in his hands. "I'd say a few more days and you'll be able to phase again."

"I'm not rushing," Jacob said, letting his head sink into a pillow that I'd propped behind him.

"Well the good news is, I don't think you'll be fighting off any _vampires_ any time soon," Edward said. He'd walked in with my mother, and they held hands in the corner of the room.

Jacob grunted. "But there were more Volturi members last time, I remember them lined up in the meadow—."

"The wives?" Edward said.

"Yes, where were they?" Jake said.

"Don't worry, Zafrina has taken Cruz and their army to Italy to finish the job. After what happened to Nahuel, the Amazonians are not taking any chances."

Jacob frowned. "What happens if they resist?" He said, knotting his eyebrows together.

Edward smiled. "Alice doesn't foresee a problem."

I perched next to Jacob, letting my feelings of relief seep into his mind. _Now we're safe._

"Dad," I said. "Did you get anything out of Demetri about those markings on the trees?"

"Not much. His thoughts were somewhat scrambled towards the end. The only conclusion I can draw is that the five symbols together form something like a black hole, but there must be something else to it, because on their own, the symbols do nothing. I've tried."

"Jake!" Leah said, coming around the corner. Behind her, Seth and Ben followed sheepishly.

Jacob strained to see them come in from the opening behind him. Seth patted him on the back as he passed and then Jacob waited until all three of them sat on the opposite sofa before relaxing back onto the pillow.

"Are you okay?" Leah said.

"Just great," Jacob said, sarcastically. He grunted again as he strained to put his legs up on a small footstool.

"Well you look a lot better today," Leah said.

Jacob looked up in surprise. "Have you visited before?"

"We all have, Jake," Seth said. "As soon as it was over but we didn't want to wake you—."

"Bella told us it was okay to come," Leah cut in. "I mean if you're too tired, we can leave."

"No, no, please stay," Jacob said, trying to sit himself up a bit higher. I fluffed the pillows behind his neck until his awkward expression faltered. His eyes rested on Ben.

"We just wanted to say a big thank you, Jake," Leah said. "You allowed this, to happen, to save us."

I looked at her a little confused but Jacob just nodded at her. "No sweat."

"Why, I don't understand?" I said. Then I turned to Jake. "You knew it might kill you and you did it anyway?"

He shrugged.

"He's a wolf," Leah said, "it's in his blood."

"Well, I think that's incredibly brave," Bella said.

"Just as brave as Ben," Leah added, turning to take his hand in hers. He looked fully able again, since I'd last seen him unconscious in Felix's arms.

"Or stupid," Alice said. "Thank goodness you're okay," she continued. Jasper came in and put his hand out and shook Ben's hand. "I thought I told you not to pull stunts like that again. You know how quickly—." She stopped eyeing Ben and Leah with a peculiarity. Jacob saw it too.

"And what's this?" Jacob said, leering at the two of them.

Leah blushed. "You find them in the most unexpected places," she said, leaning in to Ben. He kissed her shoulder affectionately.

"I'm sorry," Jacob said. "What?"

Leah giggled; a very unusual mannerism for her, and it made her look childish again, like the weight of the world no longer rested solely upon her shoulders.

"I'll be sorry to see you go," Alice said, softly.

"Go where? I thought you were staying here?" I said. I glanced over to Alice and then to Leah. Her face reddened and then washed over with sadness.

"We can't stay here, Carlie," Leah said. "Ben and I are going to make a fresh start, somewhere away from vampires and wolves..."

"But why?" Jake said.

She looked away, studying the panes of Ben's face. "You know I don't age when I'm here… we… it can't work if I look like a teenager forever. If I stay like this..." her voice trailed off.

"And besides, I need to stop running," Ben added. "I'm not that scared little kid anymore."

"We'll miss you big sis," Seth said, leaning in to put an arm around her.

She smiled. "I should hope so."

From beside her, Jasper threaded his hands through Alice's fingers.

"Oh, they're here already?" Leah said. The whir of the sedan echoed outside. Bella went straight for the door. Seth followed her and disappeared from sight.

When he returned, he had an empty wheelchair in his arms, which he stationed onto the limestone floor before going back for Billy.

"There you are," Sue said, making her way quickly into the house. She stopped abruptly when she saw Jasper and looked hesitantly to the sofas.

"Oh don't mind us," Alice said, springing up from the arm. "I was just going to put the kettle on, want one?"

Sue looked stunned but nodded. She watched Alice pull Jasper from the couch and make for the door then she motioned much more cautiously to the sofas.

"Oh Jacob," she said. "You're okay."

"I told you he'd be fine, mom," Seth said.

"My boy," an older voice came from behind her as Billy came in to view. He took his hat off and laid it on his lap while Charlie pushed the wheelchair to the sofa. Billy leaned out a hand to his son.

"Hi dad," Jacob said, his face flushed.

"Hi grandpa," I said to Charlie. His arm was in plaster from his wrist up to his shoulder.

Billy smiled at us both. "Everyone misses you back home kid," he said. "Rachel and Rebecca wanna see you too."

"Thanks. Maybe tomorrow?" Jacob suggested.

"Maybe tomorrow," Billy agreed.

Alice did indeed return with tea and coffee; albeit I caught the grimace as Sue sipped hers, and their mugs remained full long after the steam had died down.

Between us we explained the prophecy, and all the events that had followed.

"I'm proud of you son," Billy said once we'd finished. "I'm proud of you all." He looked up at Ben, Leah and Seth, then over to the far wall where my parents stood. Beside them Carlisle, Alice and Jasper smiled back.


	71. Chapter 71 - Carlie

Chapter Seventy-One: Carlie

The wedding was nothing like I'd envisaged in my nightmares. Nor was it in a claustrophobic hall full of alluring scents.

From the meadow at the crest of the cliffs Jacob waited, propping himself subtly on the alter. Behind him the sun fell onto the Pacific horizon spilling its red dye into the calm waters. He twisted the ring from one hand to the other, grinning nervously at those who caught his eye.

I stayed safely to the side beneath the shelter of a small wooden hut, where the oversized awning kept my sparkle at bay, and the smell of the sea-air freshened the overwhelming wolf aroma. I embraced the peaceful swell of the ocean while around me the guests buzzed with excitement.

Three men in Quileute tribal attire beat drums as Paul walked down the aisle. Then came the bridesmaids in long flowing dresses and flowers threaded through their hair. Rachel walked out last, alone.

When I looked back to Jake, I found Billy at the front too beneath a crushed white canopy, which hung between the trees. He looked on with pride as his daughter approached.

The ceremony was followed by an onslaught of ferocious dancing that took me by surprise. Sue Clearwater and my grandpa Charlie could actually throw each other around the dance floor with a reasonable amount of coordination, despite his broken arm.

The pack were all huddled together in the corner by the bar, trying hard not to show too much enthusiasm at the corny songs. The only ones who weren't with them were Leah and Ben who danced quietly in the corner, while Sam and Emily were very much the centre of attention beside the bride and groom.

"How are you doing?" Jake whispered into my ear. He wrapped one arm around my waist before twirling me around.

"Fine," I said. I took both his hands and drew back up to him again.

"Not even a hint of aroma here for you?" He teased.

I shoved him slightly, careful not to push him too much. "Don't flatter yourself," I said. "Your family stink."

A grin spread across his face. He drew me closer into his hold and kissed me.

"But you don't stink," I added.

"Just as well," he said, smiling, and leaned down to kiss me again.

"Do you think Rebecca's kids have the wolf line?" I said. Scarlet was jumping around the dance floor throwing confetti in the air and watching it rain down around her.

"Yeah, I think they do," he said, smiling.

Zafrina and Cruz in the sitting room with Carlisle and my father when we returned from the nuptials. Despite Cruz's enormous frame, he smiled at me with a soft, almost caring look that lit up his face.

"You're back already, is it done?" I said.

Beside him, on the sofa, Zafrina nodded. Jake held back while I ran over to the couch wrapping my hands in hers. She painted a picture of a peaceful Italian city before my eyes. Volterra.

"So, it is settled," Carlisle said, not looking up.

Zafrina's eyes met Edward's and he nodded. "I concur."

"I too," Cruz added, with his heavy accent.

Zafrina stood up, looking down on me with benevolence. "This is the start of a new era, Carlie. Without the Volturi opportunities are limitless. We can do things we never dreamed of before. Even try a bit of vegetarian, perhaps." She smiled.

"What about the rules? Like secrecy?" I said. "Who will enforce them?"

She paused and looked to Edward who nodded.

"Have you ever wanted to visit Italy?" He said, beside me.

_What_? I look up at my father in astonishment. "We're going to be the new Volturi?"

He and Carlisle laughed out loud.

Behind me, Jake came closer. I could feel his disapproval muddying up the air. He stopped beside me, slightly set back from the others, and threaded his fingers through mine.

"No, we're not going to replace them," Carlisle said. "But we've lived in Forks for over ten years now. We've outgrown the place, Carlie. It's time for us to move on... and until everything settles down, we've decided to try it out as a new base; our European residence."

Esme came out of the kitchen with a small suitcase in her hands. "It won't be permanent," she said, carefully. "Maybe for a few years or so?"

They all watched me. Jake's face was staunch.

"The art and the architecture there is fascinating," Edward added. "And you could learn the language?"

"And perhaps it's time for the pack to grow up a little, without us here keeping them young?" Carlisle added, hunching his shoulders. Cruz raised his eyebrows slightly, bordering on a frown, while from the corner of my eye, Jake threatened a smile. It seemed to crack the tension between Jacob and the others.

"So no more uni?" I said, looking up at my father.

"No more uni," he replied.

Esme put the case down and came over to us. "Are you in?" She said, her eyes wide and pleading.

"Only if a certain wolf is invited," I said. I pulled Jake's hand and he came in closer, but he didn't speak. Cruz tried to conceal the affect the wolf smell was having on him but it wasn't entirely subtle. Either it was that or the thought of a wolf being with us in Volterra that made him turn his face to the side slightly.

"You will, right, J?" I said, looking up at Jacob.

His eyebrows were raised. "Geez, Italy," he said, running his hand through his hair. He paused and looked down at me. The corners of his eyes dipped downwards slightly, and he wore the kind of expression that cried out negativity.

"J?" I prompted, trying hard not to panic.

He shook his head from side to side.

"My father's gonna kill me," he said.

I squealed, and beside me, my father and Carlisle laughed.

"Give us more credit than that," Edward said. "C'mon Jacob, when have we ever not looked out for you?" He patted him on the back.

Jake smirked and reddened in the face slightly.

"I'm so pleased," Esme said, squeezing my arm. "I couldn't have imagined leaving you behind; either of you."

"But who will take on the Volturi's role?" I said. "Surely someone needs to upkeep the peace?... and if we're not going to do it—."

"We thought about putting a council in place," Zafrina said. "One representative from each coven—."

"Or, the Taio girls?" Cruz said.

"The who?" Jacob said.

"But we've not really gone into it in such a big way," Edward added. "Vampire politics can get a little heavy."

"Leave it to the wolves to police the vamps," Jake said, beside me. He looped his hands around my waist. "Well, leave it to the _others_ I mean."

I couldn't keep the grin from my face.

"I'm never letting you out of my sight again," he whispered before kissing my neck.

"Are you coming with, Zafrina?" I said, pressing my head against Jacob's chest.

She sighed and shook her head. "Big cities… hiding underground, it's just not me… I am meant to be in the outdoors, Carlie, in the sun, in the rainforest, in the Amazon. I can't leave that place."

"But then—."

"Cruz and I shall visit all the time… but first we are going to seek out the Taio girls."

"And who are they?" I said, acknowledging my father's amused expression.

Her mouth twisted. "Nahuel's sisters; five of them, and we should have looked them up a long time ago. Since their father, Joham died, the girls have been living peacefully in Peru," Zafrina continued. "They've not only integrated with humans but they're trying to develop an antidote to enable us to convert and preserve the decayed blood of the deceased. Have you ever heard of such a thing?"

"We have been studying this for years," Edward said, enthusiastically.

"Imagine the possibilities this holds," Zafrina added.

_What? But they're only half-bloods?_

"They're smart," Edward said, quickly. "They have a unique understanding of what's fair and right, and between them they have a lot of life experience."

Zafrina grinned at me and then made her way towards the door. "We're going to Peru to find them." She winked at me before turning to Esme and Carlisle who were now outside by the front door.

One by one the others started to come down the stairs: Rose, Alice, Jazz, Emmett and my mother. We lined up in the hallway, by the big glass windows. Zafrina turned and bowed her head to us.

"I'll see you all in Italy when it is done," she said.

I left the others packing up the main house, and took Jacob back to the cottage with me. It was empty, which was perfect.

"J, were you paying attention when Zafrina painted that vision of Volterra?" I said.

"Yeah, why?"

I walked through into my bedroom and collapsed onto the small low sofa, which faced my bed. "Let me show you again," I said.

This time he did pay attention. I took his hand and channeled him Zafrina's images as she had painted them to us all back in the lounge of the main house. I knew what he would see first.

"The three horizontal lines," he said. "Can you zoom in?"

I chuckled and went in closer to the stone pillars, which encircled a small plaza. All the buildings looked ancient, but the ones at the far end had tall stone columns that rose like giants out of the cobbled floor.

"I'm betting there's five of those horizontal lines in that plaza," I said.

Beside me Jake nodded. He continued to hold my hand while he searched the vision for anything else.

"Do you see those words?" I prompted.

"Words? No," he said. "Oh, wait. I see what you're talking about."

There on the floor of the plaza in my vision, the cobbles seemed to line up in a pattern, and that pattern looked like letters, albeit not like letters that I'd ever seen.

The pupils in his eyes refocused as he came round. Then he looked at me with more urgency.

"That's it, isn't it," he said. "That's the spell that makes those circle things work."

"I don't know," I said. "But that's what's we're going to Volterra to find out."


	72. Chapter 72 - Epilogue

Epilogue

Felix didn't stop running until he reached Alaska.

He'd thought about returning to Volterra, but what for? If Caius, Aro and Marcus had somehow survived then they would most certainly kill him on the spot for being a traitor. After all, he'd set them up.

And even if they did not return did he really need to be reminded about them. He'd been stupid to think they'd cared about him all this time. By not keeping Bella, Edward, Alice and Jasper in the Amazon, he'd betrayed them all. But what choice did he have? The Amazon trip was a trap. Either betray the Volturi, or die at the hands of the Cullens. The sword was double edged and sharp on both sides.

Felix reasoned that it was self-defense, the primal laws of survival. He had to comply with Ben, even if he was just a human, because he was the only one who had been honest with Felix from the start. If only Aro had trusted him like he had trusted Demetri. If only they hadn't forgotten just how valuable he was.

Felix ran on.

It was cold in Alaska, not that he cared about the temperature, and while the sun was well hidden beneath a thick blanket of cloud he didn't want to stay outside. It was too exposed.

He ran until he found a small town. There were plenty of modest houses all close together, like flowers planted in a row.

He didn't stop there.

Farther out of town, he found some bigger places. He was careful to look for the empty ones, foreclosed or just plain derelict. It was part of the bargain he'd made to the Cullens. They wouldn't tolerate the obscene violence that he'd been so accustomed to back in Volterra.

He didn't search for long.

There at the end of a small uneven road was the house, secluded and dilapidated. The stench of rot hit him before he'd even crossed onto the driveway.

The start of a new era.

THE END

THANK YOU FOR READING! AND PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK, AND HOW I CAN IMPROVE MY STORY!


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